Japanese Firm Buys Into Open Source

Looking to tap into the growing Linux market in Asia, Japanese software
company Software Research Associates (SRA) bought the Linux software
business from open-source operating system maker Turbolinux.

Under terms of the deal, the Turbolinux Linux software business will become
a division of SRA, keeping the Tubolinux brand. San Francisco-based
Turbolinux will keep its PowerCockpit server-provisioning product. It will
announce the formation of a new company around this business in the coming
weeks, the companies said.

“The combined strength of SRA and Turbolinux will enable Turbolinux to focus
on its growing Linux software business and capitalize on its founding member
role within the UnitedLinux initiative,” said Ryugo Marumori, SRA’s
president, in a statement.

The Turbolinux unit, which will be based in Tokyo, will become the hub of
SRA’s Linux operations. SRA has appointed Hajime Watanabe CEO and Koichi
Yano president and COO.

With a presence in both China and Korea, Turbolinux is a leader in the Asian
Linux market, which analysts anticipate as key area for global growth of
open-source software. According to researcher IDC, the overall Linux market
was $80 billion in 2001, with Asia contributing 34 percent of total new
Linux client and server operating environments license shipments in 2001.

“Turbolinux, combined with SRA’s strength in the software industry, will
further the Turbolinux lead as the number one Linux server operating system
in the Asian market,” said Ly-Huong Pham, Turbolinux’s CEO.

SRA said it would continue Turbolinux’s support of UnitedLinux, a consortium
formed in May
with Caldera, Conectiva, and SuSE Linux. UnitedLinux is
committed to producing a unified brand of Linux that would compete with
open-source software from Red Hat for corporate customers. A week ago,
UnitedLinux announced it would >a
href=”http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/1446201″>release a
beta version next month.

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