Mandriva Acquires Lycoris, Boosts U.S. Presence, Desktop Prowess

On the heels of its recent acquisition of Brazilian Linux vendor Conectiva and name change from Mandrakesoft to Mandriva, Mandriva will announce Wednesday that it has acquired Lycoris, a U.S. maker of user-friendly desktop Linux distributions.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Mandrivas February acquisition of Conectiva SA was valued at $2.3 million in stock.

When it acquired Conectiva, Mandriva (Mandrakesoft) said it was seeking ways to grow its market share and that Conectiva offered it new commercial opportunities in Latin America, where Mandriva lacked a presence.

Similarly, the Lycoris acquisition is likely part of an effort to grow Mandrivas presence and market share in North America, where Lycoris desktop Linux distribution is popular and has been available on retail shelves and bundled with PCs and laptops.

/zimages/6/104592.jpg Mandrakesoft emerged from bankruptcy in March 2004 following a year of redressement judiciaire, the French equivalent of U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Under the terms of its debt restructure, the company committed to repaying creditors an estimated 4.1 euros ($5 million, at the time) over a nine-year period.

Lycoris, too, has struggled, as was evident from an open letter written by founder/CEO Joseph Cheek last November. Citing lagging sales, Cheek signaled “major changes” to the companys products and future direction, and said the company had discontinued development of several new products (including Lycoris Pocket PC Edition), and had reduced its staff.

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