Canonical Is Reportedly Considering An IPO

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Canonical Is Reportedly Considering An IPO

Mark Shuttleworth is reportedly considering a move to make Canonical a public company...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Canonical-Ubuntu-Possible-IPO

[Awesomeness]

Great. Then Canonical would be required by law to reveal their numbers and must not lie about them.
Looking forward to compare the self-proclaimed #1 Linux distributor to Red Hat.

[Hohlraum]

Because no company has ever inflated their numbers pre-IPO. Hopefully they pilfer emails from their mailing lists and bug systems to offer IPO shares to the people who have helped improve their products. That's what Redhat and VA Linux Systems did back in the day.

[Luke_Wolf]

A company that has not made a profit since it's creation 10 years ago , now wants to take on what effectively amounts to uninsured micro-loans, presumably to attempt to expand their operations... Shuttleworth are you actually actively trying to destroy your own company? Is that what Mir was really all about? Because this right here is basically guaranteed to kill it. You're going to get a big IPO since you're canonical and thus a popular name, and then you're going to try to expand, and everyone is going to pull out on your already unprofitable company and then because the money is no longer there and you over extended yourself you're going to crash, and Shuttleworth won't be able to bankroll you.

[gens]

don't go full redhat

[xeekei]

I wish them luck. Despite what the rest of the armchair business people here say.

[Awesomeness]

don't go full redhat

Why not? Afraid that people will recognize Canonical as what it truly is?

[blackout23]

don't go full redhat

You mean large and profitable?

[johnc]

A company that has not made a profit since it's creation 10 years ago , now wants to take on what effectively amounts to uninsured micro-loans, presumably to attempt to expand their operations... Shuttleworth are you actually actively trying to destroy your own company? Is that what Mir was really all about? Because this right here is basically guaranteed to kill it. You're going to get a big IPO since you're canonical and thus a popular name, and then you're going to try to expand, and everyone is going to pull out on your already unprofitable company and then because the money is no longer there and you over extended yourself you're going to crash, and Shuttleworth won't be able to bankroll you.

Awww come on... it worked for Twitter!

[Luke_Wolf]

I wish them luck. Despite what the rest of the armchair business people here say.

The problem is a company that is losing money going public is about one of the worst ideas there is. If someone attempts it, they better have a damn good gambit that they're planning for making money to back it up. Otherwise it's just going to the guy who is already in a hole and tossing him a shovel (which then happens to be on a collision course for his head).