Canonical Is Reportedly Considering An IPO

[gens]

You mean large and profitable?

catering to a bunch of whiny shareholders and the related politics never helped anyone

[Luke_Wolf]

Around 70% of companies are money-losing at IPO time. It's not that important to investors. What investors care about are the forecasts about how much more money the company will make in the future. For example, Box.

Keep in mind that the mass majority of them fail.

[xeekei]

We also need Canonical. I am not an Ubuntu user, but they are the only ones with a remote shot at making Linux on the desktop matter. Even if you believe Ubuntu is the worst distro, it is still better than Windows having 90% of the market. If we could just break 10% it would change a lot.

[chrisb]

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).

Around 70% of companies are money-losing at IPO time. It's not that important to investors. What investors care about are the forecasts about how much more money the company will make in the future. For example, Box.

[Deavir]

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

I agree. For the size of the company they take on pretty big projects. They always seem half baked, maybe an infusion of money will help them with momentum. I disagree with some decisions (MIR) but they draw new users probably more then any other company. My first distro was debian then a month or so later Ubuntu with the so much easier to use installer came out, the multimedia prompt to install and driver install prompt for non-free. This was all a big deal at the time, I feel they did move the ecosystem forward.

[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).

[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!

[blackout23]

don't go full redhat

You mean large and profitable?

[Awesomeness]

don't go full redhat

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

[xeekei]

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