“When thousands of computer buffs received an offer for what
amounted to free money — the chance to get in on one of Wall
Street’s hottest IPOs this year — some of them blew it.
Instead, they wound up fuming — and flaming — as the stock of
Linux software vendor Red Hat Inc. soared sixfold in its first
three days of trading last week, from an offering price of $14 a
share to $85.25. For programmers who got in on the chance to
buy as many 400 shares, that amounted to a paper profit of $28,500
by the close of trading Friday.
Red Hat’s special offer was intended as a means of paying back
programmers who have done volunteer work on Linux, the computer
operating system that its supporters hope could challenge the
dominance of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows. It was also a way of
staying in the good graces of the Linux hackers, on whose efforts
Red Hat depends.”