“Red Hat, the most popular U.S. distributor of Linux, filed with
the Securities Exchange Commission for an initial public offering
June 4, setting off a wave of speculation that several Linux-based
companies may follow suit.”
“Red Hat has selected Goldman, Sachs & Co. as its lead
underwriter and expects to raise a maximum $96.6 million, according
to its filing. The 5-year-old company’s revenue last year was more
than $10 million, Red Hat officials said. It has previously
received financial backing from Compaq Computer, IBM, Intel,
Netscape Communications, Novell and Oracle, as well as two venture
capital firms.”
“The move by the Durham, N.C., company prompted calls to Caldera
Systems, the Linux division of Caldera Inc. in Provo, Utah. Caldera
Systems distributes OpenLinux, a business and server oriented
version of the operating system.”