Acquisitions And Open Source Software Development

Participation of firms in Open Source Software (OSS) development is steadily increasing. In fact, a substantial part of OSS projects today are developed in informal collaboration between firms and a community of voluntary contributors. As more and more firms are active in OSS, acquisitions of firms active in OSS development occur increasingly often. Yet, despite the economic and practical importance of OSS, research has so far overlooked this phenomenon. This dissertation explores this phenomenon of acquisitions of firms active in OSS development. Michael Vetter examines the role of OSS in the pre-acquisition phase and the impact of acquisitions on OSS development in the post-acquisition phase. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, the author examines acquisition motives, acquisition likelihood, timing of acquisitions, and outcomes of acquisitions and discuss mechanisms behind variations across acquisitions. The findings from the studies contribute to research on acquisitions and OSS development while also providing insights into how to leverage OSS in target search, selection and evaluation processes as well as how to effectively manage acquisitions of firms active in OSS and the communities around them. About the author Michael Vetter is a researcher at the Schöller Chair in Innovation and Technology Management (Prof. Henkel) at Technical University of Munich. His research focusses on acquisitions and Open Source Software development. .

Participation of firms in Open Source Software (OSS) development is steadily increasing. In fact, a substantial part of OSS projects today are developed in informal collaboration between firms and a community of voluntary contributors. As more and more firms are active in OSS, acquisitions of firms active in OSS development occur increasingly often. Yet, despite the economic and practical importance of OSS, research has so far overlooked this phenomenon. This dissertation explores this phenomenon of acquisitions of firms active in OSS development. Michael Vetter examines the role of OSS in the pre-acquisition phase and the impact of acquisitions on OSS development in the post-acquisition phase. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, the author examines acquisition motives, acquisition likelihood, timing of acquisitions, and outcomes of acquisitions and discuss mechanisms behind variations across acquisitions.The findings from the studies contribute to research on acquisitions and OSS development while also providing insights into how to leverage OSS in target search, selection and evaluation processes as well as how to effectively manage acquisitions of firms active in OSS and the communities around them.

This book enables you to leverage the state-of-the-art of creating open source based business models and of managing open source in the development cycle of commercial software and during due diligence in mergers and acquisitions. In addition, it provides information about why investments in open source makes sense. Practitioners, investors and consultants created this book to help professionals in the software business like investors, executives, business developers, product managers, architects, developers, quality managers, development operations managers as well as students to get acquainted and proficient in using open source products in a commercial context. First, the focus is on business model impact of open source products and open source licenses. Dr. Karl Michael Popp gives an overview of the different types of business models for open source companies. Dr. Josef Waltl shows how open source licenses and intellectual property strategies can create a unique business model based on a combination of open source and proprietary software. Then, the focus is on detection and license compliance aspects of open source software in mergers and acquisitions. The acquisition of a software vendor requires the review of intellectual property rights including open source license compliance as described by Dr. Karl Michael Popp. The following new chapter, authored by Joseph Jacks from OSS Capital, provides fundamentals of the open source business by elaborating on value creation and value capture for commercial open source companies. Then, two chapters cover the offerings of tool vendors for governance of open source software but also for development enablement. First, Bill Weinberg and Greg Olsen show the broad offering of solutions of Black Duck Software, a provider for open source governance and enablement tools. The next, new chapter, provided by Snyk, focuses on development aspects of using open source software as part of commercial products like assistance for developers in selection and in continuously updating open source components during the software development lifecycle.

We are very pleased to introduce Open Source Development, Communities and Quality. The International Conference on Open Source Systems has come to its fourth edition – OSS 2008. Now, Free, Libre, and Open Source software is by all means now one of the most relevant subjects of study in several disciplines, ranging from information technology to social sciences and including also law, business, and political sciences. There are several conference tracks devoted to open source software with several publications appearing in high quality journals and magazines. OSS 2008 has been organized with the purpose of being the reference venue for those working in this area, being the most prominent conference in this area. For this th reason OSS 2008 has been located within the frameworks of the 20 World Computer Congress, WCC 2008, in Milan, the largest event of IFIP in 2008. We believe that this conference series, and the IFIP working group it represents, can play an important role in meeting these challenges, and hope that this book will become a valuable contribution to the open source body of research.

In open innovation scenarios, firms are able to profit from technological developments that take place beyond the legal boundaries. However, in the absence of contract-based vertical command chains, such as in the case of open source software (OSS), it is difficult for firms to obtain control over the innovation project’s trajectory. In this book, the author suggests that firms have basically two options to control project work beyond their boundaries and beyond their vertical command chains. The assumption is discussed against various theories of the firm as well as control theory and empirically tested by analyzing firm engagement in Eclipse open source projects as well as communication work in the Linux kernel project.

This 125+ page report looks closely at how public, academic and special libraries are using open source solutions for email, integrated library systems, word processing and spreadsheets, the library website, server management, and content management and digital preservation software, among other applications. The study looks at which libraries use open source and which use commercial software and why. The study helps librarians and library information technology staff to answer questions such as: what are the most popular open source applications? How much of an IT or software support staff must a library have to succeed with open source alternatives? How much do libraries spend in supporting open source solutions in both funding and staff time? How much does the use of open source software save them? What areas of library operations have been most impacted by open source? How many open source solutions are libraries of different size staffs and different types using? How many have started with an open source solutions in a given area and then abandoned it? How do libraries evaluate their own success or failure with open source? What are the open source solutions they are most anxious to try in the future? Which outside services do they recommend to support open source alternatives? Which information sources about open source do they find most useful?

The pervasiveness of and universal access to modern Information and Communication Technologies has enabled a popular new paradigm in the dissemination of information, art, and ideas. Now, instead of relying on a finite number of content providers to control the flow of information, users can generate and disseminate their own content for a wider audience. Open Source Technology: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications investigates examples and methodologies in user-generated and freely-accessible content available through electronic and online media. With applications in education, government, entertainment, and more, the technologies explored in these volumes will provide a comprehensive reference for web designers, software developers, and practitioners in a wide variety of fields and disciplines.

This book describes the state-of-the-art of creating open source based business models and of managing open source in the development cycle of commercial software and during due diligence in mergers and acquisitions. Practitioners and consultants created this book to help professionals in the software business like executives, business developers, product managers, architects, developers, quality managers, development operations managers as well as students to get acquainted and proficient in using open source products in a commercial context. First, the focus is on business model impact of open source products and open source licenses. Dr. Karl Michael Popp gives an overview of the different types of business models for open source companies. Dr. Josef Waltl shows how open source licenses and intellectual property strategies can create a unique business model based on a combination of open source and proprietary software. Then, the focus is on detection and license compliance aspects of open source software in mergers and acquisitions. The acquisition of a software vendor requires the review of intellectual property rights including open source license compliance as described by Dr. Karl Michael Popp. Then, two chapters cover the offerings of tool vendors for governance of open source software but also for development enablement. First, Bill Weinberg and Greg Olsen show the broad offering of solutions of Black Duck Software, a provider for open source governance and enablement tools. Then, VersionEye focuses on development aspects of using open source software as part of commercial products. They cover assistance for developers in selecting and in continuously updating open source components during the software development lifecycle.