Mandriva

Mandriva (merger of Mandrakesoft, Lycoris, and Conectiva) is a France software company, and creator of Mandriva Linux. Describing itself as a project initiator and a skills organizer in the Open source arena , Mandriva is also founding member of the Desktop Linux Consortium.

Mandriva was created (as MandrakeSoft) in 1998, and has offices in the United States and France. The management team consists of: *Jacques Le Marois, chairman, co-founder *François Bancilhon, chief executive officer *Paul Guillet, sales *Thierry Bossut, administration & finance *Gaël Duval, Communication, co-founder, creator of Mandrake Linux *Frédéric Lepied, chief technical officer *Régis Wira, quality assurance & support

Mandrakesoft operated under bankruptcy protection from January 27, 2003 to March 30, 2004. Despite its efforts to cut losses and improve profits, Mandrakesoft was forced to file for protection due to a series of quarterly losses. The déclaration de cessation de paiement (similar to the US Chapter 11) gave the company protection from its creditors. Mandrakesoft recorded its first quarterly profit since 1999 of 270,000 euros on 1.42 million euros of revenue during the period between October 2003 and December 2003.

Share (finance) of Mandrakesoft are again being traded on the Euronext Marché Libre exchange (ISIN code MLMAN) and on the US OTC Bulletin Board (Stock symbol MDKFF).

On January 24, 2005, Mandrakesoft announced that it would acquire Brazilian Linux distributor Conectiva for the amount of 1.79 million euros (2.3 million United States dollars at the time). On April 7, 2005, Mandrakesoft announced the decision to change the name of the company to Mandriva and their distribution name to Mandriva Linux.

= External links =

*[http://www.mandriva.com/ Mandriva official website] *[http://www.mandriva.com/company/press/briefsn=/mandrakesoft/news/2405 Mandrakesoft press brief announcing the request for bankruptcy protection] *[http://www.mandriva.com/company/press/prn=/pr/corporate/2462 Mandrakesoft press release announcing the exit from bankruptcy] *[http://www.mandriva.com/company/press/prn=/pr/corporate/2551 Mandrakesoft announcing new name]