Red Hat, Inc. (formerly Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises[5] and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, with other offices worldwide.
Red Hat has become associated to a large extent with its enterprise operating system Red Hat Enterprise Linux. With the acquisition of open-source enterprise middleware vendor JBoss, Red Hat also offers Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), an enterprise virtualization product. Red Hat provides storage, operating system platforms, middleware, applications, management products, support, training, and consulting services.
Red Hat creates, maintains, and contributes to many free software projects. It has acquired the codebases of several proprietary software products through corporate mergers and acquisitions, and has released such software under open source licenses. As of March 2016, Red Hat is the second largest corporate contributor to the Linux kernel version 4.14 after Intel.[6]
On October 28, 2018, IBM announced its intent to acquire Red Hat for $34 billion.[7][8][9] The acquisition closed on July 9, 2019.[10] It now operates as an independent subsidiary.[11][10]
History
In 1993, Bob Young incorporated the ACC Corporation, a catalog business that sold Linux and Unix software accessories. In 1994, Marc Ewing created his own Linux distribution, which he named Red Hat Linux (associated with the time Ewing wore a red Cornell University lacrosse hat, given to him by his grandfather, while attending Carnegie Mellon University[12][13][14]). Ewing released the software in October, and it became known as the Halloween release. Young bought Ewing's business in 1995, and the two merged to become Red Hat Software, with Young serving as chief executive officer (CEO).
Red Hat went public on August 11, 1999, achieving—at the time—the eighth-biggest first-day gain in the history of Wall Street.[15] Matthew Szulik succeeded Bob Young
Fedora Project
Red Hat is the primary sponsor of the Fedora Project, a community-supported free software project that aims to promote the rapid progress of free and open-source software and content.[49]
Business model and customers
Red Hat operates on a business model based on open-source software, development within a community, professional quality assurance, and subscription-based customer support. They produce open-source code so that more programmers can make adaptations and improvements.
Red Hat sells subscriptions for the support, training, and integration services that help customers in using their open-source software products. Customers pay one set price for unlimited access to services such as Red Hat Network and up to 24/7 support.[50]
In September 2014, however, CEO Jim Whitehurst announced that Red Hat was "in the midst of a major shift from client-server to cloud-mobile".[51]
Rich Bynum, a member of Red Hat's legal team, attributes Linux's success and rapid development partially to open-source business models, including Red Hat's.[52]
Red Hat's links to branches of Israel's military and statements of support for Israeli associates has also led to some controversy and calls for boycott during the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Programs and projects
One Laptop per Child
Red Hat engineers worked with the One Laptop per Child initiative (a non-profit organization established by members of the MIT Media Lab) to design and produce an inexpensive laptop and try to provide every child in the world with access to open communication, open knowledge, and open learning. The XO-4 laptop, the last machine the project produced (in 2012), runs a slimmed-down version of Fedora 17 as its operating system.
KVM
Avi Kivity began the development of KVM in mid-2006 at Qumranet, a technology startup company that was acquired by Red Hat in 2008.[60][61][62]
Subsidiaries
Red Hat Czech
Red Hat Czech s.r.o. is a research and development arm of Red Hat, based in Brno, Czech Republic.[102] The subsidiary was formed in 2006 and has 1,180 employees (2019).[103] Red Hat chose to enter the Czech Republic in 2006 over other locations due to the country's embrace of open-source.[104] The subsidiary expanded in 2017 to a second location in the Brno Technology Park to accommodate an additional 350 employees.[105]
In 2016, Red Hat Czech reported revenue of CZK 1,002 million (FY 2016), and net income of CZK 123 million (FY 2016), with assets of CZK 420 million (FY 2016)|CZK 325 million (FY 2015).
The group was named the "Most progressive employer of the year" in the Czech Republic in 2010,
Mergers and acquisitions
Red Hat's first major acquisition involved Delix Computer GmbH-Linux Div, the Linux-based operating-system division of Delix Computer, a German computer company, on July 30, 1999.
Red Hat acquired Cygnus Solutions, a company that provided commercial support for free software, on January 11, 2000 – it was the company's largest acquisition, for US$674 million.[113] Michael Tiemann, co-founder of Cygnus, served as the chief technical officer of Red Hat after the acquisition. Red Hat made the most acquisitions in 2000 with five: Cygnus Solutions, Bluecurve, Wirespeed Communications, Hell's Kitchen Systems, and C2Net. On June 5, 2006, Red Hat acquired open-source middleware provider JBoss for US$420 million and integrated it as its own division of Red Hat.
On December 14, 1998, Red Hat made its first divestment, when Intel and Netscape acquired undisclosed minority stakes in the company. The next year, on March 9, 1999, Compaq, IBM, Dell
External links
References
- Red Hat Names Matt Hicks President and Chief Executive Officer July 12, 2022^
- Paul Cormier Red Hat, retrieved 6 April 2020^
- Red Hat Insights www.redhat.com^