ITWire

Attempts to contact former Mandriva developers have drawn a blank. Either nobody knows or nobody is telling. Open source, it would appear, does not mean open communication.

Back in January, things were a bit clearer. At that time, Mandriva dramatically announcedthat it would have to shut its doors by the 16th because one of its main shareholders had refused to accept a recapitalisation plan.

Chief executive Dominique Loucougain took the trouble to write a two-page letter, explaining that LinLux, formerly known as Occam, had turned down the plan.

He said another investor, Townarea Trading and Investments, had offered to bear the entire €4 million recapitalisation. This recapitalisation was first proposed on September 30 last year; LinLux objected to it at the time because there no contract between Mandriva and a Russian firm, Rosa Labs, which was at the time involved in development of the Mandriva GNU/Linux distribution.

Loucougain wrote that, following this, Rosa and Mandriva had entered into a contract and a fresh meeting of shareholders held on December 5. But at this meeting LinLux, which owns 42 per cent of Mandriva, had rejected both recapitalisation schemes proposed.

One scheme proposed a capital increase of €4 million reserved for two main shareholders, Town Area and LinLux, and reduction of capital of €6.3 million carried by the two.

In the event of either shareholder not agreeing, the capital increase of €4 million was to be reserved only for shareholders who had subscribed to the capital increase, and the reduction of capital of €6.3 million would have to be supported by the two main shareholders.