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SUSE To Be Taken Private By Its Largest Shareholder

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SUSE To Be Taken Private By Its Largest Shareholder

Marcel LUX III SARL (Marcel) as the largest shareholder in SUSE is planning to take the company private and delist it from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. SUSE will be merged with an unlisted Luxembourg entity. Marcel currently owns a 79% stake in SUSE.

SUSE.com press release

59 comments
  • I can't decide if this will be a good idea or not

    • I would be cautiously optimistic. If they are public, the the top tier entity is the shareholders which usually don’t look further then their dividends and so public company usually focuses on short term growth. Public company doesn’t need to bend backwards towards committee of millions of shareholders and can focus on long term as it wants and deems fit, usually preferring long term investment. Of course it can go the other way too. When they are not responsible to shareholders, theres a possibility that the it gets squeezed end enshitified waaaay faster.

  • This is good news 😀. It's always better to have a privately owned firm where there is no pressure to contrastingly make more money every year. They'll be able to focus on providing the best systems and support rather than how much money they can make for the shareholders. 👍

  • Canonical

    Looking pretty good right now among the corporate distro makers. 🥲

    • Gross, gross, grrooossssss!

    • Canonical

      Looking pretty good right now among the corporate distro makers. 🥲

      Yeah, sure... https://lwn.net/Articles/937369/

    • I mean, Canonical is also privately held and not publicly listed. And it looks like this is the same private equity firm that owned SUSE fully before taking them public. (Marcel LUX III SARL is a holding company owned by EQT Private Equity.)

      • Canonical is also privately held and not publicly listed.

        For sure. The difference is in who the owner is and what their track record in regards to FOSS is. Putting the 19 years of BDFL's Canonical ownership together, I think he's generally been okay. The core products have always been open source and free for both commercial and non-commercial use. I don't know much about the private equity firm currently holding SUSE.

        And it looks like this is the same private equity firm that owned SUSE fully before taking them public. (Marcel LUX III SARL is a holding company owned by EQT Private Equity.)

        I guess that's a positive, but we really don't know what direction they'd take once the curtains close. Chances are profit maximization will be at the top of the list. It's unknown how that will translate in reality in the short and long term. E.g. would they be nice and give stuff for free early to steal customers from RHEL, tightening down the road, or cutting costs today to make a buck now. It's anyone's guess.

59 comments