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Canonical Ltd

Canonical Ltd
Private company limited by shares
Industry Computer software
Founded 5 March 2004; 13 years ago (2004-03-05)
Founder Mark Shuttleworth
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Mark Shuttleworth (Executive Chairman)
Jane Silber (CEO)
Products Ubuntu, Launchpad, Bazaar, Landscape, Ubuntu One
Revenue US$65.7 million (2013)
Number of employees
700+
Subsidiaries Canonical Group Ltd
Canonical USA Inc.
Canonical China Ltd (Chinese: 科能软件股份有限公司)
Canonical Brasil Ltda
Canonical Canada Ltd
Canonical Ltd Taiwan Br. (Chinese: 英屬曼島商肯諾有限公司臺灣分公司)
Website www.canonical.com
Footnotes / references
Formerly "M R S Virtual Development Ltd"

Canonical Ltd. is a UK-based privately held computer software company founded and funded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth to market commercial support and related services for Ubuntu and related projects. Canonical employs staff in more than 30 countries and maintains offices in London, Boston, Taipei, Shanghai, Tokyo and the Isle of Man.

Canonical Ltd. has created and continues to back several projects. Principally these are free and open-source software (FOSS) or tools designed to improve collaboration between free software developers and contributors. Some projects require a Contributor License Agreement to be signed.

In a Guardian interview in May 2008, Shuttleworth said that the Canonical business model was service provision and explained that Canonical was not yet close to profitability. Canonical also claimed it would wait for the business to turn into a profitable one within another three to five years. Shuttleworth regarded Canonical as positioning itself as demand for services related to free software rose. This strategy has been compared to Red Hat's business strategies in the 1990s. In an early 2009 New York Times article, Shuttleworth said that Canonical's revenue was "creeping" towards $30 million, the company's break-even point. However, as of 2013 the company was again in investment mode, making a $21.3 million loss as it invested in mobile.

In 2007, Canonical launched an International online shop selling support services and Ubuntu branded goods; later in 2008 it expanded that with a United States-specific shop designed to reduce shipment times. At the same time, the word Ubuntu was trademarked in connection with clothing and accessories.


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