[plug] Red Hat becomes like M$

[Bret Busby]

Greg Mildenhall wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 14 Aug 1999, Bret Busby wrote:
> > That's the point; the share issue was for rich speculators only, and excluded
> > the common people.
> 
> Oh, sorry, for a moment I forgot what an IPO was.

IPO = Initial Public Offer, as far as I know.

Public = the people, as far as I know.

public - "of or concerning the people as a whole"; "open to or shared by all the
people" - Concise Oxford Dictionary, 8th Edition, 1990

So, was it available to all (emphasise the "all") the people?

Take a moment to think about that, if you are prepared to make considered
statements.

> Why exactly are Redhat not meant to sell shares to outside investors?
> Why do you think Redhat did not want the people to whom it offer
> prerelease shares to get hold of them?

As reported and mentioned previously, anyone who could not afford to put in at
least 10,000USD, and prove to E*Trade that they were experienced eploitative
speculators, failed the E*Trade eligibility test that was reportedly applied to
every person who wanted to buy shares in Red Hat.

> Would you prefer they didn't make an effort to let your "common people"
> get hold of the shares?

That's the big problem; it was done so no common people could not buy the
shares.

> Do you feel they should not have had an IPO in the first place?

If they had made a genuine IPO,  where common people and small investors could
buy shares, and Linux developers and users were given priority, then I believe
that it would have been fairer, and better for the company.

> Which other IPO are you thinking of in which such hot shares were made
> available to hundreds of "common" associates from outside the company?
> 

As far as I am aware, I have not referred to another IPO. I have referred to
this IPO, and to the supposed nature of the company, and the product, and the
supposed philosophy behind the product, and the people who made the company what
it is.

> Like Christian, I can only assume you are "ill-informed" or else just
> bitter 'cos you didn't get "the letter". :)

As far as I know, "the letter" was sent to only Linux developers.

Some receive letters; some don't. As far as I am aware, people who do not
receive "the letter" are still able to buy shares in an IPO (apart from the way
this one was conducted).

As I said, read what has been published.

If research makes a person ill-informed and stupid, as Christian said, then we
are indeed in unfortunate times.

Bret Busby
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