WHO: Red Hat, Inc., CEO Matthew Szulik
WHAT: Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the matter
of the anti-trust case settlement against Microsoft Corporation
WHERE: Dirksen Building, U.S. Senate Office Building, Room 106,
Washington, D.C.
WHEN: 10:00 a.m. EST Wednesday, December 12, 2001
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.– December 11, 2001
— Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ:RHAT)
today announced that at 10:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday, December 12,
2001, CEO Matthew Szulik has been invited to testify on the
proposed anti-trust settlement between Microsoft Corporation
(NASDAQ:MSFT)
, and the federal government. As an invited witness, Szulik will
testify before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee as part
of a panel comprised of noted legal, government and industry
experts.
“The Court of Appeals was clear that Microsoft broke the law and
engaged in anti-competitive business practices,” said Szulik, CEO
of Red Hat, Inc., in a statement prior to the testimony. “I feel it
is important to express Red Hat’s views to the Senate Judiciary
Committee that any final agreement between Microsoft and the United
States government must ensure that Microsoft will never again
practice the same illegal tactics that brought about the
government’s original case. The recent decree from the Department
of Justice is inadequate and we believe that the remedial proposals
of the plaintiffs still litigating this matter in nine states is a
more appropriate and reasonable conclusion of this legal
process.”
In a separate but related initiative regarding the class actions
suits now underway in several states, Red Hat offered a
counter-proposal to Microsoft’s proposed settlement of the class
action suits. Microsoft had proposed to donate software and
hardware to the nation’s 14,000 poorest school districts. Red Hat
countered with a proposal to provide open-source software to every
school district in the United States free of charge if Microsoft
redirects the money it would have spent on software into purchasing
more hardware for the nation’s 14,000 poorest school districts.
Additional information about Red Hat’s proposal can be found at
www.redhat.com/opensourcenow.
Senate Judiciary Committee Testimony
Details
Panel testimony in the Microsoft matter will take place at 10:00
a.m. EST in the Dirksen Building, room 106. Broadcast coverage is
not finalized at the time of this media alert, but C-SPAN or
C-SPAN2 may cover the hearings live. C-SPAN will finalize its
coverage plans at 5:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, December 11, 2001.