Brick by brick, Red Hat has built itself into a powerhouse without raising piles of VC money. Today's open source upstarts could learn from it
Most open source companies no longer aspire to be the “Red Hat of”
this or that market. But guess what? Those same open source companies
still have something to learn from Red Hat -- namely, how to be boring.
Not
boring in the sense of “these products put me to sleep,” but boring in
the sense of thoughtful, consistent growth. While Red Hat can’t boast
the GDP-sized profits of an Apple or the still-eye-popping growth of a
Facebook, Red Hat has a P/E multiple (75) that suggests investors
believe it has high-growth potential, even as it delivers a seemingly
pedestrian rate of 15 to 17 percent.
