Dell sinks cash into Linux

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I couldn't find this posted anywhere else on here, but surely someone already has..

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7787642/

RALEIGH - Billionaire Michael S. Dell, founder and chairman of Dell Inc., has placed a $99.5 million bet on Red Hat.

Dell invested his own money in the Raleigh Linux software developer, taking the largest single chunk of $600 million in debentures offered by the company in January 2004.

The investment was made by investment firm MSD Capital LP, which deploys an estimated $10 billion of Dell's personal wealth in public companies, private investments and real estate. The investment firm was given Dell's initials - MSD - as its name.

"It is certainly a good endorsement for Red Hat," says Katherine Egbert, an analyst with research firm Jefferies & Co. "Question (for Red Hat) is, did (Michael Dell) himself write a check, or is there a third party that wrote a check," says Egbert, referring to the possibility that investment managers - and not Dell - identified Red Hat for purchase.

Todd Fogarty, a spokesman for MSD Capital, declined to discuss the Red Hat investment but pointed out that 70 employees work for the New York investment firm. "It is our policy not to talk about investments," Fogarty says. A Red Hat spokeswoman did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Click here for the rest of the article

Quite the endorsement of continuing to offer a non-MS OS on his products. I wonder if this will lead anywhere significant? Think there were any stipulations in the investment, e.g, develop a better UI that can compete with Apple's OS X?

 

[PlaceofDis]

its on MacBytes already
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125714

 

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Damnit!

 

[Blue Velvet]

It is a repost but too tired to look it up... search for 'Red Hat'

Will it lead anywhere significant? China.

 

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I hate vBulletin searches.. even looking for "msnbc.msn.com" didn't turn it up.

 

[PlaceofDis]

I hate vBulletin searches.. even looking for "msnbc.msn.com" didn't turn it up.

they do suck, i like edesign's MR google search, but its not always up-to-date either