According to a talk by Benchmark Capital's Rob Bearden at this week's Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), the nature of open source business models are changing. He says open source companies should strive to become the "enterprise standard" in their market space in order to effectively monetize their commodities.

The slowdown in venture capital funding for Linux and open source-related vendors continued in the third quarter as disclosed funding deals were down 41.6% to $77.8m*, compared to $133.3m in the same quarter last year.

Zend, one of the lead commercial PHP vendors, today announced that they have received another $9 million in venture capital funding, led by Greylock Partners. So my question is - if Zend is already successful, both in terms of technology and customers why does it still need additional venture funding?

This stat seems impressive, considering all of the bad economic news recently, but the story points out that relatively little money is going to new open-source-based companies.

The 451 Group's Matthew Aslett reports that venture capital funding for open source vendors is already up almost 38% in the first quarter of 2010

There’s a lot of chatter going around that open source excels in recession environments. I’m a little on the fence about that claim... but what I’m interested in talking about today is whether open source benefits anyone looking for a job right now. In theory, if open source companies grow in a recession, they should also be hiring.

Lofty oil prices. Sub-prime mortgage woes. Financial companies (Citigroup, Etrade) stumbling badly. Ouch. Ouch. And Ouch. Whispers of a potential recession ahead continue. That made The VAR Guy wonder: If the U.S. heads into a recession soon, are open source companies better positioned to weather the storm than their closed source counterparts? Let’s take a look.

MANY technology firms are floundering amid the recession. But many of the ones that offer services tied to open-source software—free programs written by volunteers who collaborate online—are boasting double-digit growth. Sales at Red Hat, the world’s biggest independent open-source firm with annual revenues of $653m, grew by 18% year-on-year in the first quarter.

We have previously voiced concern about the pipeline for VC funding based on the fact that while the first quarter of 2008 was the most successful quarter in history in terms of open source vendors raising venture capital funding, the percentage of disclosed Seed and Series A funding hit an all time low in the quarter.