VA Linux Systems
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Formerly called
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VA Research (1993–1999) VA Linux Systems (1999–2001) VA Software (2001–2007) SourceForge (2007–2009) |
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| Subsidiary of GameStop | |
| Industry | Online media; retail |
| Founded | November 1993 |
| Founder | Larry Augustin & James Vera (VA Research) |
| Headquarters | Fairfax County, Virginia |
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Key people
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Kathryn McCarthy (CEO) |
| Services | ThinkGeek |
| Parent | GameStop (2015–present) |
| Website | geek.net |
Geeknet, Inc. is a Fairfax County, Virginia–based company that owns the online retailer ThinkGeek and is a subsidiary of GameStop. The company was formerly known as VA Research, VA Linux Systems, VA Software, and SourceForge, Inc.. It was founded in 1993 and was formerly headquartered in Mountain View, California.
VA Research was founded in November 1993 by Stanford graduate student Larry Augustin and James Vera. Augustin was a Stanford colleague of Jerry Yang and David Filo, the founders of Yahoo!. VA Research was one of the first vendors to build and sell personal computer systems installed with the Linux operating system, as an alternative to more expensive Unix workstations that were available at the time. During its initial years of operation, the business was profitable and grew quickly, with over $100 million in sales and a 10% profit margin in 1998. It was the largest vendor of pre-installed Linux computers, with approximately 20% of the Linux hardware market.
In October 1998, the company received investments of $5.4 million from Intel and Sequoia Capital.
In March and April 1999, VA Research purchased Enlightenment Solutions, marketing company Electric Lichen L.L.C., and VA's top competitor, Linux Hardware Solutions. That year, VA Research also won a business-plan competition for the right to operate the linux.com domain. In May 1999, VA created a Linux Labs division, hiring former linux.com domain holder and programmer Fred van Kempen, and programmers Jon "maddog" Hall, Geoff "Mandrake" Harrison, Jeremy Allison, Richard Morrell (who would later create Smoothwall as a project at VA Linux) and San "nettwerk" Mehat. In the summer of 1999, programmers Tony Guntharp, Uriah Welcome, Tim Perdue and Drew Streib began designing and developing SourceForge. SourceForge was released to the public at Comdex on November 17, 1999. VA began porting Linux to the new IA-64 processor architecture in earnest. Intel and Sequoia, along with Silicon Graphics and other investors, added an additional $25 million investment in June 1999.
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