IBM to Acquire Red Hat for $33.4 Billion

[bill]

IBM to Acquire Linux Distributor Red Hat for $33.4 Billion [bloomberg.com]

The Red Hat purchase will give IBM an immediate cloud revenue boost growth as well as a suite of proven software products to sell through its global sales force.

“We will scale what Red Hat has deeply into many more enterprises than they’re able to get to,” Rometty said in a phone interview.

Revenue at Red Hat, which sells software and services based on the open source Linux operating system, is expected to top $3 billion for the first time this year as the company’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux product attracts business from large customers.

Oh no.
This may sound good for IBM, but the Linux folks fear IBM will do what it does to other acquisitions...mess things up. (Think Lotus Notes, OS/2)

[topr8]

yes i hope there is no long term damage to centOS although i agree it makes sense for IBM.

[graeme_p]

OS/2 was not an acquisition.

Red Hat fits in quite well with IBM's businesses and it will be an easier sell if its an IBM product.

It could be good or bad for customers and users depending what IBM do.

[motorhaven]

I'm optimistic. Redhat has solid support, something IBM is known for, and I think it's a good synergy. It exposes the OS to a larger enterprise market, and is another step in the direction of larger organizations embracing open source solutions.

[cnvi]

I'm thrilled.. IBM's support is top notch and this will give them another avenue into cloud computing and internet infrastructure. It's well known Google was also bidding for Redhat. If they had gotten it that would have bad given Google's reputation for mediocre support, challenging user interfaces, and ignoring federal laws. IBM is a very well respected company who plays by the rules so this is very good news for the web.

[mcneely]

First Github, and now this -- Microsoft and IBM - Two behemoth dinosaurs that should have gone extinct long ago.

[Rlilly]

When Sun Microsystems sold out.. it was the end of Open Source.....