Red Hat Files for an Initial Public Offering

Red Hat has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of its common stock. All of the shares are expected to be sold by the company itself, with Goldman, Sachs & Co. acting as lead underwriter and Thomas Weisel Partners and E*TRADE Securities also on the offering. The registration has been filed but is not yet effective.

Red Hat develops and provides open source software and services, most visibly the Red Hat Linux operating system, and its website has grown into one of the largest online communities for open source users and developers. A Linux company heading for Wall Street says a lot about where the momentum is right now.