VA Linux Files For IPO

Dredd13 writes "This time, it's really official. According to this story on Yahoo! News, VA Linux Systems is filing for its IPO. Wonder how they'll handle the IPO "Friends and Family" shares considering how the Red Hat fiasco went..."

Comments

"reserved for ... open source developers ..."

[alien_investor]

Indeed there is, thanks, I missed it in my rush to post.

"The underwriters have reserved for sale, at the initial public offering price up to [BLANK] shares of the common stock for employees, directors, other persons associated with us and a number of open source developers who have expressed an interest in purchasing common stock in this offering."

Wow. I wonder how I express such an interest?

Speaking of Linux IPOs...

[pluteus_larva]

I know this is kind of offtopic (prepare to be moderated down) but the same thing that happened to the geeks with the RedHat IPO debacle happened to me with the Andover.net IPO: I was rejected for not being rich enough, despite the fact that I was risking a relatively small amount of money.

Seems to me the whole OpenIPO thing is a farce. It sounds nice, but it's still only for the rich folks.

Question: who raised RHAT?

[konstant]

The real question is, who made RHAT skyrocket: geeks, or businessmen? If geeks, then that might explain the currently static state of RHAT. They don't have sufficient funds to continue buying, and they may also have a more-than-common dose of common sense about daytrading since it isn't their typical investment pattern. But by the same token, if it was the geeks, then VA probably can't expect anything nearly as spectacular as RHAT - the geek money is already spent! The only way VA could win big under this scenario (they'll win regardless because they're a respected company, but they may not win 'big') is at the expense of sold RHAT stock, and thus a drop in the RHAT value. If businessmen (aka "Wallys" and "PHB's") then damn! Buy me summa dat stock! The clueless enthusiasm of daytraders can't have all been spent on RHAT if it is indeed they who sent the price up. With IPOs fairly poor recently, look for VA to be a big financial win under this scenario. However, I personally vote for C - a mixture of the two but heavily biased towards geeks. If that is correct, then VA will do moderately well, but will only be worth investment in the long term, if at all.
-konstant

Nasdaq symbol

[NovaX]

hmm.. I don't think I really like a company taking names like "LNUX," it implies to much of a connection. VALX or something would be better... Sure, when people think of linux they don't think of VA Linux, but VA is trying awful hard to position themselves so they do. I didn't like them buying Linux.com, mostly because when they first released the site, it had contained FUD, and at times still does. Linux.(xxx) should be independant, not corperate's portal for manipulating new users to buy into whatever they want to sell them.

Using the symbol LNUX seems to try to get stock traders, especially day traders, to view Linux and VA as the same... ignorance. Maybe I'm off, but I just have an uneasy feeling towards VA.