Red Hat Software

Red Hat, Inc. (originally known as Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American company that specializes in providing open-source software solutions to enterprise clients. It operates as a subsidiary of IBM. Established in 1993, Red Hat is headquartered in . Established in 1993, Red Hat is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, and maintains offices across the globe. Red Hat is widely recognized for its enterprise operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The company also expanded into virtualization solutions with Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), following its acquisition of the open-source middleware firm JBoss. In addition to its operating system and middleware offerings, Red Hat delivers products and services in areas such as storage, application development, systems management, training, support, and consulting. A strong advocate of open-source development, Red Hat contributes significantly to various free software projects. The company has also acquired proprietary software through mergers and released them under open-source licenses. As of early 2016, Red Hat was the second-largest corporate contributor to version 4.14 of the Linux kernel, following Intel. On October 28, 2018, IBM announced plans to acquire Red Hat for $34 billion. The acquisition was finalized on July 9, 2019, with Red Hat continuing to operate as an independent subsidiary. In 1993, Bob Young founded ACC Corporation, a mail-order business selling Linux and Unix software accessories. Around the same time, Marc Ewing developed a Linux distribution named Red Hat Linux, named after a red Cornell University lacrosse hat he often wore while at Carnegie Mellon University. Ewing released his software in October, which became known as the "Halloween release." In 1995, Young acquired Ewing's business, and together they formed Red Hat Software, where Young served as the CEO. Red Hat went public on August 11, 1999, posting one of the largest first-day gains in Wall Street history at the time. That December, Matthew Szulik succeeded Bob Young as CEO. Young later founded Lulu, a print-on-demand and self-publishing platform, in 2002. In November 1999, Red Hat acquired Cygnus Solutions, a company known for providing commercial support for free software, including key GNU projects. Cygnus co-founder Michael Tiemann became Red Hat’s Chief Technical Officer and later served as Vice President of Open Source Affairs. In the following years, Red Hat went on to acquire other companies, including WireSpeed, C2Net, Hell's Kitchen Systems, and Akopia. In February 2000, Red Hat Linux 6.1 received InfoWorld's "Operating System Product of the Year" award for the fourth year running. Red Hat continued expanding through the acquisition of Planning Technologies in 2001 and AOL’s iPlanet directory and certificate server software in 2004. In 2002, Red Hat relocated its headquarters from Durham to the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. A month later, it introduced Red Hat Linux Advanced Server, later renamed Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The platform received support from major tech players such as Dell, IBM, HP, and Oracle. In 2005, CIO Insight ranked Red Hat #1 in its annual “Vendor Value Survey” for the second consecutive year. That same year, Red Hat was added to the NASDAQ-100 index. In June 2006, Red Hat acquired JBoss, turning it into a division of the company. Later that year, Red Hat introduced the Red Hat Application Stack, which combined JBoss technologies and received certification from several major software vendors. Also in 2006, Red Hat’s stock listing moved from NASDAQ (ticker: RHAT) to the New York Stock Exchange (ticker: RHT). The company continued acquiring strategic firms such as MetaMatrix and Mobicents, and partnered with Exadel. In March 2007, Red Hat launched RHEL 5 and acquired Amentra, a consulting firm specializing in systems integration and business process management. In July 2009, Red Hat replaced CIT Group in the S&P 500 Index, a significant milestone for the Linux community. Later in 2009, Red Hat agreed to pay $8.8 million to settle a class-action lawsuit related to restated financial results from 2004. The settlement was reached in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. In January 2011, Red Hat announced plans to expand its headquarters, adding 540 new jobs and investing over $109 million in its Raleigh operations. North Carolina offered up to $15 million in incentives to support the expansion, which aimed to grow Red Hat's capabilities in virtualization and cloud computing. On August 25, 2011, Red Hat revealed plans to relocate around 600 employees from the N.C. State campus to the Two Progress Plaza building. The move was officially marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 24, 2013, at the newly rebranded Red Hat Headquarters. By 2012, Red Hat became the first open-source company to surpass $1 billion in annual revenue, reaching $1.13 billion that fiscal year. It doubled that achievement by passing the $2 billion mark in 2015, and by early 2018, annual revenue was nearing $3 billion. In October 2015, Red Hat acquired IT automation firm Ansible, with the deal reportedly valued at around $100 million. In June 2017, it launched Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure (RHHI) 1.0. In May 2018, Red Hat acquired CoreOS, a company known for its expertise in container management and Kubernetes technologies. Red Hat’s affiliations with Israel’s military and its publicly stated support for Israel have sparked some controversy and calls for boycotts during the ongoing conflict in Gaza. ...view more