"Easy come, easy go. That's the story of Linux stocks, which were Wall Street darlings
last year but have been absolute poison ever since...."
"Like many dot-com companies, Linux providers seem to be plummeting to Earth after
enjoying a giddy ride based on unrealistic valuations. "These companies were bid up
in a kind of pyramid scheme," says Rob Enderle of Giga Information Group. By that he
means that the more people there were to invest in them, the more people wanted to invest.
"It was like gambling," he says. " They didn't really understand the
fundamental nature of the companies."
"And the free fall may not be over. Because most Linux companies are really service
companies (the actual Linux software is available for free), Enderle figures that they
don't have an enormous upside revenue potential. "The stocks could come down even
more," he says."
