Yahoo - Red Hat's Response to Microsoft Settlement Offer

Wed, 21 Nov 2001 16:38:28 -0700

It's just you.  Here it is:

Tuesday November 20, 3:48 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat Proposes to Enhance Microsoft Settlement Offer By Providing Open
Source Software to All U.S. School Districts
Open Source leader proposes to provide software to every school district in
the United States if Microsoft provides computing hardware for the 14,000
poorest school districts
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 20, 2001-- Red Hat, Inc.
(Nasdaq:RHAT - news) today proposed an alternative to the settlement
announced today of the class-action lawsuit against Microsoft. Red Hat
offered to provide open-source software to every school district in the
United States free of charge, encouraging Microsoft to redirect the money it
would have spent on software into purchasing more hardware for the 14,000
poorest school districts. Under the Red Hat proposal, by removing
Microsoft's higher-priced software from the settlement equation, Microsoft
could provide the school districts with many more computers--greatly
extending the benefits Microsoft seeks to provide school districts with
their proposed settlement.

Microsoft had proposed that, in settlement of class-action claims of
price-gouging, the company donate computer hardware, software and support to
14,000 poor school districts throughout the United States. Under the
proposed settlement, a substantial part of the value provided to schools
would be in the form of Microsoft software.

The Red Hat's alternative proposal includes the following:

Microsoft redirects the value of their proposed software donation to the
purchase of additional hardware for the school districts. This would
increase the number of computers available under the original proposal from
200,000 to more than one million, and would increase the number of systems
per school from approximately 14 to at least 70.
Red Hat, Inc. will provide free of charge the open-source Red Hat Linux
operating system, office applications and associated capabilities to any
school system in the United States.
Red Hat will provide online support for the software through the Red Hat
Network.
Unlike the Microsoft proposal, which has a five-year time limit at which
point schools would have to pay Microsoft to renew their licenses and
upgrade the software, the Red Hat proposal has no time limit. Red Hat will
provide software upgrades through the Red Hat Network online distribution
channel.
A Win-Win Approach

The Red Hat proposal achieves two important goals: improving the quality and
accessibility of computing education in the nation's less-privileged
schools, and preventing the extension of Microsoft's monopoly to the
most-vulnerable users.

``While we applaud Microsoft for raising the idea of helping poorer schools
as part of the penalty phase of their conviction for monopolistic practices,
we do not think that the remedy should be a mechanism by which Microsoft can
further extend its monopoly,'' said Matthew Szulik, CEO of Red Hat.
``Through this proposal all of the states and all of the schools can win,
and Microsoft will achieve even greater success for its stated goal of
helping schools. By providing schools with a software choice, Red Hat will
enable Microsoft to provide many more computers to these schools. At the
same time, the schools can accept this offer secure in the knowledge that
they have not rewarded a monopolist by extending the monopoly. It's now up
to Microsoft to demonstrate that they are truly serious about helping our
schools.''

General information about Red Hat's support for education is available at
www.redhat.com/opensourcenow/.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat is the leader in developing, deploying and managing solutions built
on the benefits of an open source platform. The open source platform
includes the Red Hat Linux operating system for mainframes, servers,
workstations and embedded devices, GNUPro tools for developers, database,
e-Commerce, secure Web server, high availability server and run-time
solutions like eCos and RedBoot. For this platform, Red Hat provides
end-to-end professional services including Professional Consulting,
Engineering services, Technical Support services, and Global Learning
services. Red Hat Network is the premier Internet based service that
simplifies and integrates the deployment and management of these offers.
More information about Red Hat is available at www.redhat.com. Red Hat is
headquartered in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and has offices worldwide. For
investor inquiries, contact Gabriel Szulik at Red Hat, (919) 547-0012, x439.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of
Red Hat, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to the
safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release that are
not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation,
management's plans and objectives for future operations, and management's
assessment of market factors, constitute forward-looking statements which
involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include,
without limitation, reliance upon strategic relationships, management of
growth, the possibility of undetected software errors, the risks of economic
downturns generally, and in Red Hat's industry specifically, the risks
associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures, the viability
of the Internet, and other risks detailed in Red Hat's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be accessed through
the SEC's Web site at http://www.sec.gov.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Contact:

     Red Hat, Inc.              Schwartz Communications
     Melissa London             Maribel Lopez/Josh Slobin
     (919) 547-0012             (781) 684-0770
     melissa@redhat.com         redhat@schwartz-pr.com

Bryce C.
Network Administrator / Scripting Consultant
CoBryce Communications
Bryce@BryceCo.Net
http://www.BryceCo.Net

-----Original Message-----
From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
[mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of
proudhawk@uswestmail.net
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 4:05 PM
To: plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
Subject: Re: Yahoo - Red Hat's Response to Microsoft Settlement Offer

Error reported: "document no longer available".

I guess someone didn't want that staying around (MS perhaps?)

On Wed, 21 November 2001, Carl Parrish wrote:

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