Strong financial performance in the most recent quarter and continued growth in results despite a challenging economy have led Standard & Poor's (S&P) Rating Services to raise Red Hat Inc.’s  (RHT) corporate credit rating from BB to BB+.   Red Hat is a leader in open source software solutions and has been upgraded thrice in less than two years. The company believes that it is still in the early stages of growth and has tremendous growth opportunity beyond 2010.   We believe the company’s strong market position, focused execution, strong balance sheet, impressive cash flow, international expansion and proven value proposition will help grow its business in the near term and deliver strong revenue growth beyond fiscal 2010.   We remain positive on the company’s long-term growth given its robust performance, driven by the record bookings and billings, substantial recurring revenue stream and growth in deferred revenues.  ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 15, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Nokia Corp. (NOK), Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY), AT&T (T), Research In Motion (RIMM) and Apple Inc. (AAPL).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Nokia Enters Netbook Market

Nokia Corp. (NOK) yesterday announced its sales and distribution plan for its first netbook called “Booklet 3G". The U.S. retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY) will sell this netbook (mini laptop) for $299.99 together with AT&T’s (T)

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Nokia Corp. (NOK) yesterday announced its sales and distribution plan for its first netbook called “Booklet 3G". The U.S. retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY) will sell this netbook (mini laptop) for $299.99 together with AT&T’s (T) 3G data plan of $60 per month for a two-year contract. Also, a carrier-free unsubsidized option will be available for a price of $599. Booklet 3G will be available from mid-November. The pros and cons of Nokia’s new venture are as under:   Pros   (1)   Diversification outside the mobile phone market becomes essential for Nokia. In recent times, the company has lost some ground due to fierce competition. According to Gartner Inc, Nokia’s share has fallen to 45% in the second quarter from 47.5% in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, market share of Research In Motion (RIMM) increased to 18.7% from 17.3% in the year-ago quarter and that ...

It is feared that some users of Sidekick phones have lost most of the personal information stored on remote servers manned by Microsoft (MSFT). The servers were based on Sun’s (JAVA) Solaris/Linux/Oracle (ORCL) technology.  Several versions of the phone were sold through service provider T-Mobile, which is a part of Deutsche Telekom AG (DT). T-Mobile has offered customers a $20 refund toward one month of data usage on the phone and an additional $100 through a customer appreciation card, which can be used for T-Mobile products and services, or for payment of a T-Mobile bill.  Customers have expressed outrage at the prospect of compensation, which was largely deemed to be insufficient. This was made worse by T-Mobile’s announcement that it would require another two weeks to send out details regarding the $100 claim. T-Mobile has also announced that it would probably be able ...

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My Picks for Thursday September 24, 2009, are:

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RHT, Red Hat Inc.

RHT is the leader in enterprise Linux and is the most recognized open source brand in the world. Solutions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss Enterprise middleware, and a broad range of management and services: consulting, 24×7 support, Red Hat Network. RHT’s global training program operates worldwide and features RHCE, the global standard Linux certification.

**RHT’s second-quarter net income rose to $28.9 million, or 15 cents a share, up from net income of $21.1 million, or 10 cents per share in

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Jefferies is out with an interesting call on Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) saying we could see a bidding war for Palm, could garner c.80% premium. Nokia (NYSE:NOK) mentioned as the main bidder. Strategic rationale: WebOS as carrot - Palm gives buyer a PC-class OS (WebOS; Linux-based, multi-tasking) and a US-centric high-end handset (Palm Pre) that best mimics iPhone experience (UI) - courtesy of senior Apple staff defections to Palm. Nokia can't compete in US (c.6% m/share) or high-end with Symbian but with another OS (would make 4, or 5 incl MSFT in Noia Netbook) 3rd Party application development is confused to say the least. Palm would have to be run as a separate business near term; 'parallel' roadmaps may take 1yr+ to converge; it could be 2011 before we see a fully integrated WebOS and Ovi services ...

Despite earlier this week announcing disappointing first-quarter results, Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) says it expects its second quarter will be stronger. However, many analysts are skeptical, as the company’s attempted takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: JAVA) has not gone as smoothly as planned.

Oracle reported revenue for the three months ended Aug. 31 fell 5%, to $5.05 billion. Analysts were expecting $5.2 billion of sales.

Net income rose 4% to $1.1 billion, or 22 cents a share, by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), but the company leaned heavily on support contracts and cost cutting to maintain profitability. The world’s second-largest software maker blamed the drop on declining overseas sales and a stronger U.S. dollar.

“Oracle’s results were impacted by the reduced value of foreign currencies when compared to U.S. dollars, reducing Q1 GAAP earnings by $0.02 per share,” the company said. “Without this impact, Oracle’s Q1

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South Korea's incumbent wireless operator, SK Telecom (SKM), is set to launch T Store, the first mobile open market in Korea, on Sep 9. The upcoming on-line store will feature applications that are optimized for smartphones and other select regular handsets.

T Store will provide an open platform where content developers can sell their applications to users of mobile handsets based on the Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability (WIPI), which allows cell phones to run applications regardless of manufacturer or carrier. Customers can download from a large assortment of multimedia content (approximately 6,500 applications), including games, phone decoration, music, broadcasting/movie and language/education that are categorized under eight main menus.

Registered content developers can sell their applications against a yearly registration fee, which is expected to be waived by the company by end of 2009 to boost developers' participation. The current revenue split is 70%/30% for the developers and SK Telecom,

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Several patents previously held by Microsoft (MSFT) are expected to change hands. Microsoft acquired the patents from Silicon Graphics and subsequently sold them to Allied Security Trust (AST) at a private auction. AST is expected to resell the patents to Open Invention Network (OIN). The patents purportedly relate to Linux open source technology, which is the reason for the interest in them.

OIN consists of member companies such as RedHat (RHAT), International Business Machines (IBM), Phillips and Novell (NOVL), which use open source technology in their products. OIM licenses the patents but typically does not resell them.

AST is in the business of acquiring patents from owners, licensing the technology back to them and ultimately selling off the patents. The member firms include big names in the technology space, such as Motorola (MOT), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Hewlett Packard Co.

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As per consumer perception, Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone and Research In Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry are ruling the smartphone market. So this is a cause of concern for Nokia (NOK), as the company is slightly lagging in the smartphone segment. Although Nokia management claims that it holds the substantial share of the smartphone market, we believe that consumers’ choices are tilted toward iPhones and BlackBerrys. On the one hand, most tech enthusiast wants to own the iPhone, while on the other hand BlackBerry is ruling the corporate segment. So Nokia’s N97, with its enhanced features and competitive pricing, is basically trying to catch up with this competition. Technology research firm Gartner projected that the smartphone category grew by 27% in the second quarter, although there is a 6.1% decline in the overall mobile phone market. So large players in this segment including Samsung and Sony ...