The VAR Guy

A rather interesting — but somewhat misleading — blog entry has been floating across the Internet this week. The “news” notes that Red Hat shares are now trading above Microsoft’s stock price. Some pundits therefore think Red Hat is more valuable than Microsoft. Um, check your math. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here’s why.

Microsoft’s stock dropped sharply today because the company’s latest quarterly profits didn’t quite meet Wall Street’s expectations. Meanwhile, The VAR Guy and other open source bloggers continue to hype Red Hat and Linux as growing threats to Microsoft. But before you suggest open source will destroy Microsoft’s profits, take a look at these stagging financial figures.