“…The Boodotcom syndrome is set to hit hard for many of
the dot-coms in the current economic environment, according to
Colin Tenwick, Red Hat’s vice president for European, Middle
Eastern, and African operations. In an interview with LinuxWorld at
the Linux Expo 2000 in London, Tenwick reflected on that formerly
high-flying UK dot-com’s recent bankruptcy. “I don’t think people
should underestimate the impact that will have,” he said.“
“Tenwick said Boodotcom’s stock situation is very similar to
that of European high-tech companies’ stocks generally. “If you
look at our chart, you could match 3,000 other companies onto that
moment. We don’t think we’re any different in that sense, in terms
of what we’ve stated. We publicly stated to the market that we’re
going to double our revenues year on year and that we’ll make
profits Q2 and 3 next year, and we feel pretty confident we’ll meet
those promises.”
“But, on a more positive note, Tenwick said that it’s very
important to Red Hat’s health in Europe that it “went through a
secondary offering at the beginning of this year. We raised over
$350 million in cash. So we have a very strong balance sheet.” He
explained that doing so prevented Red Hat from being caught up in
the Boodotcom syndrome.”