Re: [UUG/MLUG] VA Linux Hits New IPO Record Amid Linux Euphoria

["Christopher J. Kaiser" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Mike Miller wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 10 Dec 1999, Christopher J. Kaiser wrote:
> 
> > You might want to look at today's nytimes article
> > http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/articles/10linux.html
> >
> > It's a lot less glowing.
> 
> It sure is!  Thanks for passing that on.  I don't know why my search of
> the N.Y. Times didn't turn up their own article.
> 
> I liked this paragraph:
> 
>     As the company's prospectus points out: "We do not expect to generate
>     sufficient revenues to achieve profitability and, therefore, we expect
>     to continue to incur net losses for at least the foreseeable future.
>     If we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain it."
> 
> It's amazing to me that such a statement would be a prelude to a massive
> increase in stock value.
> 
> Mike

>From what I've seen of other companies' prospectuses (prospecti?), this
is pretty much standard form.  If you go to this article via linuxtoday
one of the commentors points out that the company was profitable before
they started raising venture capital.  The way things seem to work is
that once you get a huge cash infusion your expected to go out and spend
the money to build your business.  Some of the money goes towards
capital goods that you have to depreciate out.  Most of it goes to added
expenses.

Jonathan's right, though.  VALinux probably isn't worth $200+ a share,
but I'd bet the $30 the investment bankers and lucky hackers paid is
more realistic than a lot of other companies out there.  There's a lot
of money flowing into the market and people are looking for somewhere to
put it.

In general it's funny how you can spin these articles.  I've seen
several over the last few weeks talking about how the rise of anything
associated with Linux is assinine (at least partially true).  These same
people turn around and talk about how Microsoft is a good buy despite
the FoF because it's within $10 of its all time high.  Of course all of
the broad market indices are up how much over the last four months,
despite MS?

Chris
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~       
Christopher J. Kaiser  
Assistant Professor
Animal Sciences Unit
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
EMAIL:PROTECTED
phone: 573.882.5479
fax: 573.884.4606
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