ZDNet: Vision Series: Taking Red Hat beyond geek chic

Two months after settling in as CEO in November 1999,
Matt Szulik watched Red Hat’s stock price begin a free fall that
would unnerve investors, drive away disillusioned employees, and
raise questions about the company’s very existence.

Critics of Linux –an operating system created by volunteer
programmers and licensed for free–said it couldn’t create a
profitable business as Red Hat had promised. But Szulik made a
full-court press on Wall Street and successfully hurried through a
secondary offering that left the company’s coffers flush.

“The $300 million in the bank on the balance sheet was key,”
said Peter von Schilling, a senior analyst at Merrill Lynch. “It
removed any kind of doubt that Red Hat is sustainable.”

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