Sunnyvale, CA — (press release excerpt) — MontaVista Software Inc. announced that it has received an equity investment from Yamaha Corp. Yamaha manufactures and markets a broad range of products including digital musical instruments, professional audio and recording, and home entertainment systems. The current investment follows several other high-profile corporate investors — including IBM, Intel, Sony, and Panasonic — who invested in MontaVista in its third round of funding announced earlier this year.

“With the spread of broadband technology, embedded Linux is proving an ideal match for digital audio products,” said Masatada Wachi, managing director and CTO, Yamaha. “We are impressed by the performance and reliability of MontaVista Linux and are convinced that this popular development platform can meet the requirements of our market. We expect our strategic partnership with MontaVista to help further develop the technology needed to enable the market to tap into newer applications and opportunities.”

According to a recent market research report from Venture Development Corporation (VDC), consumer electronics is the fastest growing market segment for Linux, at an annual growth rate of 49 percent and reaching $149.6 million in shipments by 2006. VDC also estimated that development in consumer electronics will be the largest segment of the embedded Linux market by 2006 with 43.2 percent of total revenue of $346 million.

 
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