[chrisseaton]

> for $34 Billion (with a B)

What does the capital B mean? Is this long and short billions? I've never seen capitalisation used as a notation for that.

[AlexB138]

The "with a B" thing is just an idiom meant to underscore the magnitude of the amount paid. Essentially saying "You heard me right, Billion, not Million!".

[dave5104]

Usually, that's just a stylistic way for the author to really push the fact that the dollar amount was in billions and not millions.

[UweSchmidt]

As opposed to Million (with an M), because it's just Linux, right? Free Software. How valuable can it be?

Most people, including me, are probably unaware what Red Hat is actually doing.

[phoe-krk]

As in billion, not million.

It's a pretty big sum.

[mnw21cam]

Unfortunately, the long billion seems to be going the way of the dodo these days.

[drKarl]

Not in Europe