OPEN SOURCE BLOGROLL

Open Source Weblog

Open source exit routes
June 11, 2007

Stephen Walli has posted a blog about MySQL CEO Marten Mickos’s presentation at the recent OSBC event, including a copy of his slides (PDF).

It looks like an interesting talk and I’m sorry I missed the event, but in particular my attention was grabbed by the chart on p19 regarding open source success stories, not least because it started out life as a sketch on the back of a napkin during a conversation I had with Marten at the start of the year.

I wrote something about this conversation here but as you can see, Marten has done a much better job on the presentation.

It’s a great slide as not only does it show the breadth of the open source ecosystem, but also demonstrates the relatively high level of exits by formerly private first and second generation open source vendors.

Of course the third generation group is a lot more crowded and immature and it will take time before many of them are looking for an exit, although even now some names stick out as potential IPO or acquisition targets.

Watch this space.