Early reports yesterday alleged that Xandros had secretly purchased Linspire, an accusation later confirmed by Xandros executives. We now have fresh details on the deal, straight from the mouth of Andreas Typaldos, CEO of Xandros and freshly installed President of Linspire.

According to Mr. Typaldos, executives of the two companies have been in on-and-off talks over the past several years aimed at a purchase of Linspire, talks which heated up towards the end of last year. Neither company is willing to release the terms of the deal — describing it as a "private commercial transaction" — but have confirmed that it is an acquisition rather than a merger, and that Linspire is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xandros. They've gone on to share that all Linspire employees, excluding redundant clerical staff, have been retained, including Larry Kettler, formerly Linspire's CEO, who will now serve as an Xandros VP.

As for Linspire's product offerings, Typaldos indicated an intention to maintain the Linspire brands distinct from Xandros, though Linspire's CNR will be integrated with Xandros products. Neither company's Open Source activities will change, and Freespire will continue to be available as an Open Source project.

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Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
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