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NTT group firms take stakes in Linux Systems

TOKYO - NTT Data Corp and NTT Comware Corp plan to buy interests in VA Linux Systems Japan, a Sumitomo Corp unit that specializes in creating Linux operating systems and related software, with a goal of co-developing Linux-based telecommunications systems.

NTT Data and NTT Comware will pay 50 million yen (US$472,000) and 140 million yen to acquire 5-percent and 20-percent stakes, respectively, in VA Linux. The deal will be the first sizable investment an NTT group firm will make in a developer of open-source software.

As part of the tie-up, the NTT group companies plan to dispatch engineers to VA Linux.

In addition, capital participation by the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp group firms will lower Sumitomo's stake in VA Linux from 70 percent to 56 percent.

NTT Data is hoping to sign up more corporate customers by utilizing the Linux freeware and by lowering its system development costs. The firm's client list consists mainly of central government agencies and financial institutions.

NTT Comware is currently developing Linux-based telecommunications infrastructure and core software and plans to commercialize them in the next three years.

(Asia Pulse/Nikkei)

Apr 7, 2004

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