Redhat's Stock Offering to Developers Not Working Out as Planned

from the go-ahead,-take-our-money dept

So it seems that many of the folks that Redhat offered "friends and family" IPO-priced shares to cannot get them as E*Trade requires IPO traders to have a certain amount of experience and net worth to trade in IPOs. This brings up a mixed reaction for me personally. As I've said before, I don't like the idea of giving out stock to the public on the assumption that it's a definite "reward" as traders should realize it really (really!) is possible for stock to go down and people to lose money. All that E*Trade is doing is weeding out investors who may not realize that or may not be prepared to handle it. However, because of the sillyness of our markets, the fact is, it should be a pretty safe bet, and Redhat is just trying to reward folks who helped them out.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Seldon, 28 Jul 1999 @ 11:03pm

    A better approach

    I think that if Red Hat is really concerned about giving a reward to those developers ( and I think they should ) it would be better if they give them some stock options. In that way after the IPO, Red Hat would sell them shares ( if the IPO goes well ) at a lower price ( the one set for the initial offering ) and cash in the difference ( as public companies do with their employes ). That way, there'd not be any risk and it would really be a prize.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Mike (profile), 30 Jul 1999 @ 11:03am

    E*Trade tells them to lie

    That same article listed above has been updated (originally it said there was no comment from E*Trade). Now, however, apparently E*Trade sent out a note telling people to "try again" and perhaps they had filled out the original incorrectly... There are also quotes from people at E*Trade suggesting that spurned developers lie on the form, because it's not like E*Trade is going to check up on them. Anyone else think this is a little questionable?

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.