NPR news item: IBM to acquire Red Hat

[Bernie Hoefer]

On 2018-10-29 12:39 EST, Ed Booher wrote:

> Yes, it broke yesterday and has been all over both IBM and Red Hat's
> websites.

     Work on deals like these are kept super-secret, so, unfortunately,
many Red Hatters heard about it through yesterday's news.
     Thank you, Eddie, for mentioning the website.  For those who
haven't seen it, you can view the press release here:

<https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/ibm-acquire-red-hat-completely-changing-cloud-landscape-and-becoming-world%E2%80%99s-1-hybrid-cloud-provider>

...Red Hat's CEO Jim Whitehurst's blog here:

<https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hat-ibm-creating-leading-hybrid-cloud-provider>

...and Red Hat's Products & Technologies President Paul Cormier's blog here:

<https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/monumental-day-open-source-and-red-hat>

     One point I've seen over and over again in the press is just how
much money that IBM is spending on Red Hat.  According to Google
Finance, IBM's market cap is $111.25 billion.  Spending $34 billion
(30.6% of their market cap) on Red Hat underscores how much IBM values
Red Hat for its culture and employees.  IBM is certainly not buying Red
Hat for the products, since almost all of Red Hat's portfolio is Free
and Open Source Software and thus could be downloaded, for free, over
the Internet.  So, there is reason to believe that Red Hat will truly be
kept as "a distinct unit in IBM" per Whitehurst's blog so as not to
destroy that culture and scare off the employees.

     I believe Red Hat's CEO and IBM's CEO are supposed to be on CNBC's
_Mad Money_ tonight at 18:00 EDT.


P.S.  Obviously the words, above, are my own personal words and should
not be taken as those of any of my employers -- past, current or future.

-- 
Bernie Hoefer
PGP e-mail is welcome!  Get my 1024 bit signature key from:
<http://pgpkeys.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x446A6F93>.
"The more I know, the more I realize how much I do not understand."

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