Editing Ximian (section)

==History==
Miguel de Icaza had a job interview at [[Microsoft]] in 1997 shortly before he started the GNOME project. At Microsoft he met Nat Friedman, who worked there as an intern. Afterwards they became good friends. In April 1999 Friedman came up with the idea to create a company to work on GNOME. The company was founded on 19 October 1999 as International GNOME Support, but its name was changed to Helix Code later.<ref name=icaza-helix /><ref name=ximian-founding /> Because that name could not be trademarked the name was changed to Ximian on 10 January 2001.<ref name=namechange /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ximian.com:80/rename/|title=Frequently Asked Questions About the Ximian Name Change|date=2001-06-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010611023319/http://ximian.com:80/rename/|access-date=2018-05-19|archive-date=2001-06-11}}</ref>

Nat Friedman was the [[Chief executive officer|CEO]] of Ximian from its founding to 2001 when Ximian brought in David Patrick as CEO and President. Friedman became Vice President of Product Management.<ref name=ximian-ceo /> The company's business model was based on providing a mix of [[free software|free]] and [[proprietary software]], solutions and services.<ref name=eweek /> Ximian was a founding member of the [[GNOME Foundation]]<ref name=gf-founding /> and the Desktop Linux Consortium.<ref name=dlc-founding />

Ximian was acquired by Novell on 4 August 2003 to improve its offerings of Linux for the enterprise.<ref name=novell-acq /> Novell was in turn acquired by [[The Attachmate Group]] on 27 April 2011.<ref name=tag-acq /> In May 2011 The Attachmate Group laid off all its US staff working on [[Mono (software)|Mono]], which included De Icaza.<ref name=tag-mono-layoff /> He and Friedman then founded [[Xamarin]] on 16 May 2011, a new company to continue the development of Mono.<ref name=xamarin /><ref name=xamarin-friedman /> On 24 February 2016, Microsoft announced that they had signed an agreement to acquire Xamarin.<ref name="blogs.microsoft.com">{{Cite web|title = Microsoft to acquire Xamarin and empower more developers to build apps on any device|url = http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/02/24/microsoft-to-acquire-xamarin-and-empower-more-developers-to-build-apps-on-any-device/|website = Official [[Microsoft]] Blog|date = 24 February 2016|access-date = 2016-02-24|language = en-US|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160224232629/http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/02/24/microsoft-to-acquire-xamarin-and-empower-more-developers-to-build-apps-on-any-device/|archive-date = February 24, 2016|df = mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = Breaking: Microsoft acquires Xamarin, a leading platform provider for mobile app development.|url = http://mspoweruser.com/breaking-microsoft-acquires-xamarin-a-leading-platform-provider-for-mobile-app-development/|website = Microsoft PowerUser|date = 24 February 2016|access-date = 2016-02-24|language = en-US|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160227023930/http://mspoweruser.com/breaking-microsoft-acquires-xamarin-a-leading-platform-provider-for-mobile-app-development/|archive-date = February 27, 2016|df = mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title = Microsoft Agrees to Acquire Xamarin Inc. Deal reflects efforts to increase Microsoft software's presence on devices beyond those that run Windows.|url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-agrees-to-acquire-xamarin-inc-1456340494|website = Wall Street Journal|date = 24 February 2016|access-date = 2016-02-24|language = en-US|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160224211456/http://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-agrees-to-acquire-xamarin-inc-1456340494|archive-date = February 24, 2016|df = mdy-all|last1 = Greene|first1 = Jay}}</ref>