

Building a $36.5 million business with open source software - ahmicro
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-studionow/

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devy
This was submitted by the author Patrick A in late August. Why the re-
submission?

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delano
It's helpful to include the previous thread.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2917158>

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beambot
Has using GPL-licensed code prevented anyone else from being acquired? That
really struck me...

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acangiano
Plenty of companies, whether they know it or not. Large companies like IBM are
very cautious when it comes to code ownership and contamination. In some
companies, employees have an easier time going through their divorce than
getting an approval by an open source committee to use GPL software.

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bradfa
I'd expect IBM, of all "big companies," to be one of the least concerned about
an acquisition using GPL software. They do so much work with GPL software, I'm
sure they have very well defined internal policies on making sure they're in
compliance. IBM is number 7 by measure of changesets
(<http://lwn.net/Articles/460597/>) in the 3.1 Linux kernel.

Heck, my company (approx 150k employees) isn't what I'd consider a good
contributor to open source software but even we have internal policies
defining how we need to comply with GPL and other open source licenses.
There's lawyers internally that specifically work with open source compliance.

As long as you have your act together and can show that you're compliant with
all licenses (open or closed), I can't see why it would be a major barrier to
a legit buyout offer.

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mgamma500
Excellent info from your experience and great resources too.

