Schaumburg, IL — (press release) — Motorola, Inc. today announced a broad step forward in its support for open source technology, open platform computing, and the establishment of Linux as an embedded operating environment. Motorola, through its wholly owned subsidiary Metrowerks, is expected to acquire 3 million shares of Lineo Inc. representing eight percent of the issued capital stock of Lineo Inc. for the aggregate price of $22.5 million. Lineo has agreed to sell Motorola 2 million warrants to be converted into common shares of Lineo Inc.

“With customers demanding increasingly more complex capability in embedded devices, there is a need for a flexible, open platform such as Linux,” said Fred Shlapak, executive vice president and president of the Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) for Motorola, Inc. “As a leading provider of embedded solutions, Motorola is committed to establishing Linux as the open platform of choice for embedded development.”

The investment and strategic partnership will result in a wide variety of joint products and services from all three companies. Lineo and Metrowerks will work together to integrate Lineo's embedded Linux solution integrated with Metrowerks' CodeWarrior Integrated Development Environment (IDE). CodeWarrior for Embedix, will provide Linux developers with a single package for creating the next generation of embedded products.

“Motorola has been one of our most important and supportive partners since Lineo began in 1999,” said Bryan Sparks, CEO, Lineo, Inc. “The strengthening of Motorola's partnership with Lineo shows their commitment to the role of Linux in the embedded market. Our continued work with them will provide embedded device manufacturers with more choice, more flexibility and more solutions in the future.”

CodeWarrior for Embedix will support Motorola processor architectures including PowerPC, ColdFire, M-CORE, and 68K. In addition, the companies will work together to integrate third party solutions that better target the Motorola customer base in various vertical markets.

“The combination of Lineo's Embedix tools and Metrowerks' CodeWarrior IDE will be a powerful solution for developers targeting the fast growing area of embedded Linux applications,” said David Perkins, president and CEO, Metrowerks. “As always, Metrowerks is dedicated to providing quality development tools, and our partnership with Lineo will allow developers to take advantage of the openness and flexibility of the Linux operating system for a broad array of embedded applications.”

 
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