“Just when it was starting to look like the market for Internet
IPOs was finally drying up, along came a stock that not only
tripled the first day, but continued to climb steeply the following
two days.”
“The success might have come as a surprise to those folks who do
not believe the hype that software which no one owns can comprise a
multi-billion dollar business.”
“Acknowledging that its product never could have been built
without the community of free software developers, it set
aside, according the S-1, “800,000 shares of common
stock for sale at the initial public offering price through a
directed share program, to directors, officers and employees of Red
Hat and to open source software developers and other persons that
Red Hat believes have contributed to the success of the open source
software community and the growth of Red Hat.”