Stardate 20011120.1939 (On Screen): VA Linux has
reported its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2002, and it's yet another wipeout. It's no longer in the server business, of course, and the company is a shadow of its former self. To see a longer term pattern, check out page 54 of the
10-K for fiscal 2001. It provides the last 8 quarterly results. It's most illuminating. Over the course of the last six quarters, sales was (millions) $50.7, $56.1, $42.5, $20.3, $16 and in this quarter just $5.6 million.
As usual, the most important thing to look at is assets, and they're still plummeting like a stone. One of the standard line items is "total current assets", which basically means everything that can be converted into real money to offset losses. When that runs out, you're bankrupt. At the end of July 2000, it was $211 million. At the end of July 2001, it was $97 million. Now it's $75 million and it's expected to continue dropping in upcoming quarters. A company which has $6 million per quarter revenue and $20 million per quarter cash bleed is not long for this world; that kind of deficit is not easy to make up. I have been skeptical about VA Linux for a very long time, and I still see nothing to change my mind: this company is doomed. (And it's not going to be acquired, because there's nothing there worth owning.) Which means that speculation about 
the future of SourceForge now more than academic. (discuss)
The only reason I can think of that anyone would acquire VA Linux would indeed be to acquire SourceForge so that they could continue to run it at a loss. It's not that the SourceForge software is worth anything (it probably is negligible) but rather that some sugar-daddy corporation wants to keep subsidizing the open source movement. I still think that the best bet for that happening is IBM.
