[lug] Red Hat $ 217/share long or short?

[Michael J. Hammel]

Thus spoke Rob Mohr
> I am stupid.  Linux is free.  Yes, multiple distributions.  Why or what in
> the market is bidding Red Hat to $ 217 per share?  Is it going to stay at
> that level?  
> 
> Sure it was offered as an ipo at what $ 60?  But is there a rationale to
> short this stock, ie to buy a put?
> 
> I thought Linux is a free OS.  

No one except the nerd community (a very small percentage of the world)
wants to download and install the OS.  Red Hat provides the packaging
necessary to get this product to market.  That includes the ability to get
it ported to various handheld and network connected devices.  They also
provide support and a wharehouse of information for larger companies trying
to untie themselves from Microsoft.  Many people see a future in a new king
(Linux, not necessarily Red Hat) and are trying to get a piece of that
action.  It's the same thing that keeps Cobalt so high.

What's bidding RH up is pretty much the same thing that bid up Yahoo and
Netscape.  Future potential.  Netscape couldn't deliver financially.  Yahoo
seems to be.  At this point, it's anyone's guess if RH will do so.
-- 
Michael J. Hammel           |    Trifles make perfection and perfection is no
The Graphics Muse           |    trifle.
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org  |                    Michelangelo
http://www.graphics-muse.com