Mark Shuttleworth is giving serious thought about a possible initial public offering (IPO) or listing of Canonical, the company behind his Ubuntu Linux operating system for PCs and smartphones.
This is according a report on ZDNet, an American technology news website, which quotes Shuttleworth as saying that a final decision has not yet been made.
The South African-born Shuttleworth, who now lives in London, told ZDNet that the decision would not be his alone but that he would discuss it with his team at Canonical. But he reportedly said the idea of an IPO has gained traction at the company in recent months.
“We now have a story that the market will understand,” the website quoted him as saying.
It’s understood the strong performance of the Ubuntu OpenStack cloud services are behind the company giving thought to the idea of an IPO.
Born in the Free State in 1973, Shuttleworth founded and later sold Internet security company Thawte to US firm VeriSign in 1999 for more than US$575m.
He later made headlines for becoming the first South African in space when he hitched a ride aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34, paying about $20m for the privilege. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media