ACADEMIA

Credit Suisse First Boston said that recent checks "increase our confidence in the secular growth prospects" of the Linux market and the market share of Red Hat, a provider of open source business applications. CSFB said, "We had expected Red Hat stock to rally as a result of the reduction in uncertainty following the filing of its restated 10k and uneventful resolution of the SEC's questions. In fact, Red Hat's stock has fallen by an additional 20%, reflecting concerns in regards to Linux market fundamentals and Red Hat's execution." The research firm said that contrary to recent concerns, there is no evidence that aggressive pricing by Sun Microsystems is slowing adoption of Linux. "Our checks found Linux's transition to a mainstream platform to be proceeding in line or ahead of expectations," CSFB said. A competitive presence by Novell "is increasing in line with expectations, and is not have a meaningful impact on pricing," the firm said. "We continue to believe the current negative sentiment provides an attractive entry point," CSFB said.