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Red Hat Is Now Part of the S&P 500
phantomfive writes "Red Hat has made it onto the S&P 500, an important measure of the stock market. It is replacing CIT, which is expected to go bankrupt after the government refused to bail them out. Red Hat is the first Linux company to make it on to the S&P 500. While this means little directly for the company, it is an indication of the importance Linux is taking on in the world."
How else do you expect it to happen? Really?
Yes. It just KILLS some people that Linux might be doing well or
Redhat might be doing well. They will go so far as to even try to
stir up some sort of artificial stock panic.
Regardless of how some lemming might want to spin it, Redhat was
slightly less important last week when compared to this week and
this week they are a part of the S&P 500.
Perhaps Redhat will be a little less subseptable to FUD now.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Owning Red Hat stock doesn't make linux happen. When you (or the index fund) buys RHAT stock, that money goes to the previous shareholder, NOT Red Hat.
Not directly. But as more people buy stock in RHAT it means that Red Hat will be a more viable business and more people will put money into it. So indirectly Red Hat does get money.
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
Aldous Huxley
"Red Hat .. bully customers just as well as other non-Linux open source companies, so good for them"
Where, how, please provided verifiable citations.
Yes and no. Directly, no effect on Red Hat.
Indirectly, Red Hat probably has a stock reserve that it maintains. Improving the price of their stock means that they can actually buy things with that stock, usually this is in the form of acquisitions. Many buyouts are done in the form of stock swaps.
Additionally, it makes their stock more attractive to give to employees/executives because its not some fly-by-night operation any more. Not that it was before, but some people like their certifications and industry recognitions.
In the end, it could potentially have a net positive effect on Linux, particularly if they use any advantage in a way that will help Linux, either directly or incidentally via side-effects of their corporate strategy.
A lot of what-ifs, but in the end, its nice to put a capstone on Linux success in the business world.
P.S. I am not an economist and what I've posted above may be completely wrong... I'm working from very old memories of a 100 level econ course I took a long long long time ago.
-*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-