Mandriva saved by CEO

After weeks of rumours, it appears that Mandriva Linux has been saved by its new CEO, Arnaud Laprévote.

The Linux company, which is based in France and Brazil, had been operating in recent months under the threat of potential bankruptcy, as its finances were reportedly precarious.

According to the French press Laprévote rallied investors "to return the group to balance and find a good business model." He said that the community does not need to be concerned about the outfit's future any longer.

Laprévote took the CEO job in April. In May a posting in one of the Mandriva forums revealed major cash flow problems and the existence of plans to perhaps sell or merge the company.

One of the possible buyers named was Lightapp, but that deal apparently fell through, and then Linagora was rumoured to be in talks with Mandriva.

Laprévote said that the existence of Mandriva was threatened, but this is no longer the case. He added that "Mandriva today is reinventing itself," and is looking to the future.

He thinks that Mandriva might find fresh market niches on the desktop and on servers. Meanwhile he has found investors "to strengthen existing markets, such as education."

The most immediate effect of Mandriva's rescue is likely to be its imminent release of Mandriva Spring 2010.1, which had been stalled recently due to financial uncertainties.

Meanwhile in other Linux related news, the outfit behind Ubuntu Linux, Canonical has joined the Open Invention Network (OIN).

The OIN alliance was established to stop Microsoft from employing vague threats of patent litigation in a FUD campaign against Linux and prevent it from attacking Linux companies and other free software and open source software products with patent litigation.

Founding members of OIN include IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony, and the alliance has a significant portfolio of contributed patents that can be used against Microsoft in the event the Vole attacks.

In joining OIN, Canonical said it expects to demonstrate support and commitment to limiting the effects of patent disputes on Linux.