Monday June 21 4:44 PM ET
VA Linux Systems Adds Investors In Fresh Financing
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - VA Linux Systems Inc., formerly known as VA Research Inc., said it received a second round of financing totaling $25 million, with a host of new investors, including SGI and Lehman Bros Holdings Inc. .
VA Linux Systems, a closely held company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., was the first computer company to sell personal computers, servers and workstations running the Linux operating system.
Linux is a version of the UNIX operating system developed by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish programmer, in 1991 and given away over the Internet. Linux runs on many different computer architectures, such as Intel Corp.'s (Nasdaq:INTC - news) processors, and Compaq Computer Corp.'s (NYSE:CPQ - news) Alpha chips.
Currently, Linux, which is maintained by a group of programmers around the world, is mostly used to run Web servers. Linux is seen as a threat to Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Windows NT in some areas, such as the Web server market.
VA Linux Systems said its second round of financing included some new investors, such as SGI (formerly known as Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE:SGI - news)), IDG Ventures, W.R. Hambrecht & Co., SmallCap WorldFund Inc., Lehman Brothers, Sumitomo Corp. and Presidio Venture Partners.
Intel and Sequoia Capital, already investors in VA, also participated in the company's second round of financing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
