The News & Observer: Heads Still High at Red Hat Software Company

Despite the low value of its stock and an approved increase in authorized shares of common stock that could cause that value to drop lower, Red Hat (NASDAQ:RHAT) takes a defiant tone at its shareholders meeting, saying it will go through Sun (NASDAQ:SUNW) to get at Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) :

"Its stock price has trudged steadily downward. It is competing against some of the largest technology companies in the world. And although it turned a profit last quarter, it isn't likely to do so again anytime soon.

But Thursday, shareholders got a chance to look at the open-source software company from the inside. The view company officials presented was of an operation with a strong balance sheet and the sales potential to make shareholders forget their Red Hat shares are trading 96 percent lower than they were 18 months ago.

Red Hat Chief Executive Officer Matthew J. Szulik described a company focused on specific areas of the market: large corporate customers, and device manufacturers looking for an inexpensive operating system. Though Microsoft is often singled out as Red Hat's nemesis, Szulik said the company is aiming at the Unix operating system market dominated by Sun Microsystems.

"The road to Redmond is through Mountain View, California," he said, referring to the headquarter cities of Microsoft and Sun respectively."

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