IBM announced today that it will acquire open source firm Red Hat for approximately $34 billion in cash and debt.
“The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer,” IBM chairman Ginni Rometty said in a prepared statement. “IBM will become the world’s number one hybrid cloud provider, offering companies the only open cloud solution that will unlock the full value of the cloud for their businesses.”
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
That will come as news to Microsoft, which is, in fact, the world’s number one hybrid cloud provider. But according to IBM, the combined assets of both firms will bring a major boost to “open source as the basis for digital transformation,” using technologies such as Linux, containers, Kubernetes, multi-cloud management, and cloud management and automation.
IBM and Red Hat have been partnering on enterprise-grade Linux for over 20 years, and the firms describe this acquisition as an evolution of that strategy.
“Powered by IBM, we can dramatically scale and accelerate what we are doing today,” Red Hat president and CEO Jim Whitehurst wrote in an email to employees today. “Together we can become the leading hybrid cloud solutions provider.”
Finally, the firms say that Red Hat will remain independent.
“Red Hat is still Red Hat,” Whitehurst continues. “When the transaction closes, we will be a distinct unit within IBM and I will report directly to Ginni [Rometty]. Our unwavering commitment to open source innovation remains unchanged.”
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and to Red Hat shareholder approval. But it is expected to close by the second half of 2019.
My Hell baby speaking
<p>I can see Microsoft knocking the door over at Canonical, since Linux is the dominator on Azure and C is the only Linux shop remaining out in the wild. </p><p>For Redhat I'm sorry. Manhattan release was my first operating system. I'll always remember. </p>
dontbe evil
<blockquote><em><a href="#357493">In reply to rmlounsbury:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>devs can use anything on azure, not only ms tools</p>
skane2600
<p>I guess I don't really understand the open source environment. If open source was everything it purports to be, shouldn't all Linux vendors be pretty much interchangeable since they're all based on the same code?</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#357492">In reply to rmlounsbury:</a></em></blockquote><p>So if you took a snapshot of Red Hat's code today, you'd have parity until the next update? Or are some of those technologies proprietary? When I hear about extensive support required, what goes through my mind is something like "proprietary through obscurity".</p>
Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#357569">In reply to matsan:</a></em></blockquote><p>"who cares about the OS anymore?"</p><p><br></p><p>The container runtimes and Kubernetics care because without the OS they can't run. </p><p><br></p><p>Security and container bleed are not up to par yet IMHO. They are making progress but they are not there yet.</p>