Former Linuxcare company closes shop

Levanta, a Linux data center automation company that was reborn from the ashes of Linuxcare, has closed its doors.

Levanta, which laid off the bulk of its 20 or so employees on Monday, is now seeking to sell the assets of the company, said a Levanta investor.

"Levanta won't continue as a standalone company, but we hope to find a home for its technology soon," said the investor. "Levanta has the best technology for managing Linux servers...but we couldn't wait for the market to develop. In the U.S., there's only a 10 percent penetration rate for Linux data centers."

The company's closure comes less than six months after it received an $8 million round of venture funding. That funding round was designed to accelerate the company's move into Linux data center automation. Previously, Levanta was focused on Linux management and data virtualization.

Levanta was created in 2004, rising from the demise of Linux operating system services company Linuxcare. The former Linuxcare used to offer a product called Levanta, which was designed to make it easier to run Linux on IBM mainframe computers.

Over the four years that Levanta operated, it raised more than $10 million in venture funding.

And, so, while Levanta as an independent company now ceases to exist, its technology may get its third home soon. Keep an eye out for the phoenix to rise again.

[aftyde]

A Founders Perspective

While it was certainly sad to see Linuxcare go, as it is with
Levanta there are some important lessons that came out of it all.
When you examine at the first generation Linux companies, very
few of them have survived without serious adaptation.

Linux and Open Source based ventures today are much more
focused on high value customer and community based opportunities. It's a more survivable ecosystem today than it
was several years ago.

That said - Levanta's technology was pretty cool. I certainly
hope that it lands with an owner that can make use of it.
Strategically - there are companies out there (Oracle and Novell)
that could use it to augment their products and offer seriously
better service to their customers.

Cheers, Arthur Tyde