November 28th, 2006
Slashdot, SourceForge, ThinkGeek carry VA Software
It's been a long time since I've bothered to look at VA Software's earnings. But with a ticker like "LNUX" I figured I'd get some color on the Linux market. Not quite.
VA Software doesn't have much software any more. By revenue, it's a media and e-commerce outfit. Aside from $2.1 million in revenue largely from SourceForge Enterprise Edition, the bulk of VA Software's sales come from media. VA Media anyone?
The company reported fiscal first quarter revenue of $10.3 million with $3.7 million being classified as "online media" and $4.46 million classified as "e-commerce." The company, which had a net loss of $336,000 for the quarter, owns the Slashdot and SourceForge sites among others along with ThinkGeek on the e-commerce side.
In fact, the game for VA Software isn't software as much as it is selling ads and sponsorships on targeted Linux sites. Since VA Software still has its hooks into the Linux market it can keep its LNUX ticker. As for the company's corporate name, it may want to drop the "Software" for accuracy's sake. Maybe the company should be called Slashdot.
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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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