Slashdot Mirror
Red Hat Vs. The Lawyers
ajs writes "On July 13, Red Hat announced that they would be re-stating their revenues for the last 3 years. This sent a shock-wave through their stock price, but early analysis seems to indicate that it's not that big a deal (the end-result is the same for a given contract, but it will be counted toward a different month). But then the really bad news hit. [Opportunistic lawyers] are taking this opportunity to punish Red Hat for reporting the change and the resulting drop in price. Red Hat is doing well, but can they weather major class action law suits without harming the business? How have other technology companies dealt with this sort of suit?"
Has anyone considered the possibility that Microsquash may be backing some of these lawyers?
"But it appears that the crux of this case is that Red Hat must prove that the mis-stated earnings were the result of an honest mistake, not intentional fudging (*cough* Enron */cough*)." But that's not it ...
Because Redhat apparently had false information for investors for three years, and they're just now releasing that information, the current investors who saw their (unrealistically valued) stock price plummett got screwed, and they've got a legitimate grievance.
(As far as I can tell. Though it should go without saying ... IANAL)
In soviet russia, You ask not what country do for you, but what you do for country!
Oh wait...
So if Enron had invested in OSS, would you be defending Kenneth Lay and complaining about how he is being persecuted by the SEC?
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.