“The once-crowded initial public offering neighborhood has
become somewhat of a ghost town for the last two weeks of 1999, as
Wall Street appears to have shuttered the doors against any new
offerings until after the New Year’s holiday.“
“The now-famous Red Hat was priced at $14 on August 12. With a
recent close of $234 per share, the stock is up 1,574 percent and
sports a market capitalization of just over $16 billion. Cobalt
Networks was priced on November 11 at $22 per share. With a recent
close of $109 per share, the stock is up 395 percent and sports a
market capitalization of almost $3 billion. Andover.net was priced
on December 9 at $18 per share. With a recent close of $45 per
share, the stock is up 152 percent and sports a market
capitalization of $361 million. And VA Linux was priced on December
10 at $30 per share. With a recent close of $190.50 per share, the
stock is up 535 percent and sports a market capitalization of $7.6
billion.”
“That’s stiff competition for market share, and that doesn’t
count other Linux-related firms such as TurboLinux, Linuxcare.com,
SuSe, Caldera Systems, and Linux Mandrake, which even LinuxOne
officials admit have more clout in the alternative-to-Windows
universe, as well as more of an operating history.”