Red Hat Posts First Quarterly Profit - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[thebull 2]

Tuesday June 19, 4:20 pm Eastern Time

Red Hat Posts First Quarterly Profit

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (Reuters) - Red Hat Inc. (NasdaqNM:RHAT - news), the leading distributor of the
Linux operating system -- an alternative to Windows, on Tuesday reported earnings of $600,000, the first time the company
reported a profit.

For the quarter ended May 31, Red Hat said that adjusting for one-time items, it earned $600,000 or break even a share, compared with a loss of $3.7 million, or 2
cents, a year earlier.

Wall Street analysts had expected Red Hat to break even, as it did the previous quarter, according to research firm First Call/Thomson Financial. Estimates ranged
from a high of 1 cent a share to break even.

Revenues rose 18 percent to $25.6 compared with the $21.7 million year earlier but down 5 percent from the previous quarter.

Linux is an operating system viewed as an alternative to Microsoft Corp.`s (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) Windows. It is an ``open`` system, that is freely available to
developers, unlike Microsoft`s closely guarded proprietary software.

gruss
tb 2

[neubiene^^^^]

Hmm hört sich ordentlich an bei dem schwachen Quartal für Computer...

[thebull 2]

auf meiner wl morgen ganz oben.
gruss
tb 2

[roger11]

In Amiland nachbörslich schon bei 5,15 $.

[thebull 2]

hmm

Tuesday June 19, 7:08 pm Eastern Time

Red Hat posts first quarterly profit but no outlook

(UPDATE: Recasts, adds CFO and analyst comment, details, updates stock price, previous RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK)

NEW YORK, June 19 (Reuters) - Red Hat Inc. (NasdaqNM:RHAT - news), the leading distributor of the Linux operating
system -- an alternative to Microsoft Corp.`s Windows -- posted its first quarterly profit on Tuesday and met Wall Street`s
estimates but refused to give analysts any guidance for future quarters.

For the quarter ended May 31, Red Hat said that adjusting for one-time items, it earned $600,000 or break
even a share, compared with a loss of $3.7 million, or 2 cents per share, a year earlier.

Wall Street analysts had expected Red Hat to break even, as it did the previous quarter, according to research
firm Thomson Financial/First Call. Estimates ranged from a high of 1 cent a share to break even.

Revenues rose 18 percent to $25.6 compared with the $21.7 million year earlier. But revenues slowed 5
percent from the previous quarter and came in lower than the $29.56 million analysts on the average had
expected. Estimates for revenue ranged from $27 million to $34.20 million.

The company said its new focus, targeting large companies as customers instead of individual users, will mean
that its sales cycle will lengthen to about 100 and the softness in the embedded and semiconductor market,
which accounted for about 20 percent of its revenue will make forecasting its future growth too difficult.

``It makes it harder for us to determine what our customer is going to do,`` Chief Financial Officer Kevin Thompson told Reuters. He also said the company would
not reiterate the guidance for the remainder of the year, which it issued in March.

Red Hat`s reluctance to provide any forecasts for future quarters bothered some analysts.

``None of the other companies I cover have refused to give guidance,`` Prakesh Patel, analyst with WR Hambrecht and Co. ``It definitely is troubling. Regardless of
the economic environment, the company has a sales pipeline and should have estimates of closing deals that`s the job of management.``

On the other hand, Red Hat has little to lose in not providing forecasts it could miss, said Prakesh who had rated the company a buy. Although he declined to say if
he would change his rating on the company he said: ``It`s tough to recommend purchase of company where you have no guidance going forward. You really can`t
judge valuations.``

Including all items, the company lost $27.6 million, or 16 cents per share in the first quarter, compared with a net loss of $17.4 million, or 11 cents a share in the first
quarter of fiscal 2001.

Red Hat shares rose in after-hours activity on Instinet, trading at $5.06 from $4.75 at the end of regular trading on Nasdaq. The company released its results after
the market close.

Red Hat controls about 55 percent of the distributed market for Linux, which is an ``open`` operating system, freely available to developers. It competes with
Microsoft Corp.`s (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) closely guarded proprietary Windows operating system.

The first-quarter earnings results adhered to the guidance the company issued in March, when Chief Financial Officer Kevin Thompson said the company expected
to earn more while revenue slowed.

At the time, company officials forecast revenues for fiscal 2002 would be $140 million, well below the $152.24 analysts had expected. Analysts and earnings would
be $17.4 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with 4 cents a share analysts anticipated. Since then, analysts revised their forecast expecting earnings on the
average of 7 cents a share and revenues of $145.85 million.

Since the beginning of the year, shares of Red Hat have underperformed the Standard and Poor`s software index by nearly 35 percent.

gruss
tb 2