MICHAEL ROBERTSON
LEAVES MP3.COM

Former MP3.com Chairman Michael Robertson is moving to a brand new start-up. Robertson and fellow former MP3.com exec Kevin Carmony are starting a new company called Lindows.com, according to information spread on the geekfest known as the pho list.

The news comes just one day after Vivendi Universal’s Jean-Marie Messier announced that former MP3.com President Robin Richards was being upped at the company to Chairman/CEO (hitsdailydouble.com, 8/30).

Details on exactly what Robertson’s new company will do are hazy, but according to an e-mail published in the San Diego Union-Tribune from Carmony to colleagues, Lindows wants to bring Linux to all desktop systems. Linux is an open source operating system. So, naturally, this would move Robertson out of the music industry’s turf and put him squarely in Bill Gates’ territory. Ahhh, now isn’t that hot water a little cooler?

"Are we nuts trying to pull this off?" Carmony wrote. "Maybe. But I'm sure Michael was told he was nuts many times for the challenges MP3.com took on as well."

A spokesperson confirmed that Lindows could use Linux to develop anything from digital music to e-mail to operating systems.

Robertson will be heading up the new company, while Carmony serves as its president. Lindows.com has opened an office near MP3.com's headquarters in San Diego.

What is unclear currently is whether this means that Robertson is now completely severing ties with the new VU-owned MP3.com. Earlier this week, Robertson appeared to be segueing into a consultant position with VU, vis-a-vis online ventures (rumor mill, 8/29). I guess we’ll all just have to wait to find out how Robertson will balance the two, if at all.