Despite the low value of its stock and an approved increase in
authorized shares of common stock that could cause that value to
drop lower, Red Hat (NASDAQ:RHAT)
takes a defiant tone at its shareholders meeting, saying it will go
through Sun (NASDAQ:SUNW)
to get at Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
:
"Its stock price has trudged steadily downward. It is
competing against some of the largest technology companies in the
world. And although it turned a profit last quarter, it isn't
likely to do so again anytime soon.
But Thursday, shareholders got a chance to look at the
open-source software company from the inside. The view company
officials presented was of an operation with a strong balance sheet
and the sales potential to make shareholders forget their Red Hat
shares are trading 96 percent lower than they were 18 months
ago.
Red Hat Chief Executive Officer Matthew J. Szulik described a
company focused on specific areas of the market: large corporate
customers, and device manufacturers looking for an inexpensive
operating system. Though Microsoft is often singled out as Red
Hat's nemesis, Szulik said the company is aiming at the Unix
operating system market dominated by Sun Microsystems.
"The road to Redmond is through Mountain View, California," he
said, referring to the headquarter cities of Microsoft and Sun
respectively."
