After years of financial difficulties and rumors of acquisition talks, it has finally been confirmed that Mandriva S.A., the company behind the Linux distro Mandriva, is in acquisition talks. French open-source software firm LINAGORA has confirmed that it is talking with Mandriva S.A. on a possible acquisition.

This is what LINAGORA said in an official press release (translated in english):

LINAGORA is a major innovation and the Open Source edition and is thus looking for every opportunity to develop and strengthen its leadership position in France and worldwide.

As such, discussions are underway with Mandriva to study the acquisition of part of the assets of the company.

These discussions are ongoing, the company LINAGORA could not provide details on what could be the result of these negotiations. LINAGORA do not wish to make further comments.

Mandriva S.A. filed for bankruptcy in 2004, from which they recovered successfully the next year under a new CEO. However, unlike other competitors, like Red Hat, SUSE etc., Mandriva has not been able to find acceptance in the enterprise arena although it continues to remain popular within the Linux community.

Neither LINAGORA nor Mandriva S.A. has made any indications as to the direction that Mandriva might take if the acquisition is successful.

This is what a Mandriva spokesperson said in regard to this development:

Mandriva, from its very beginning, has been involved in takeover talks. Mandriva bought Edge-IT, Conectiva Inc and Linbox FAS and has been attracted by other possible ventures. Mandriva has also been in talks over merger possibilities or an eventual buy-out by investors. These negotiations has been pursued throughout the life of the company and continue.

Mandriva has been affected by the economic slow-down and we took advantage of this period to develop and improve our products--an operating system dedicated to a uniquely ergonomic server (MES5.1), the most reliable free machine-management software on the market (Pulse2), Mandriva Smart Desktop to simplify the use of office desktops, education-dedicated distribution, all embrace the Mandriva philosophy of alternative options.

We are beginning to harvest the results of this development work with hundreds of thousands of PCs using the Mandriva OS sold in South America and rapid sales of Pulse2 and MES5 in Europe.

So it is unsurprising that Mandriva has once again attracted the interest of industry decision-makers.

Do you support the acquisition? Do you think that Mandriva is taking the right decision? Do let us know through the comment.