Red Hat Completes Acquisition of JBoss

June 5, 2006; 08:54 AM
Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT), a leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, announced the completion of its acquisition of JBoss, Inc. By acquiring JBoss, the global leader in open source middleware, Red Hat is now positioned to accelerate the shift to service-oriented architectures (SOA) and enable the next generation of web-enabled applications running on a low-cost, secure open source platform.

"Red Hat's acquisition of JBoss reflects a desire by our global customers to accelerate and expand the use of open source in the enterprise," said Matthew Szulik, Chairman and CEO, Red Hat. "The innovation and value of the open source platform continues to transform the performance of the twenty-first century enterprise."

After the announcement, JBoss will become a division of Red Hat with a common business model of delivering and providing production support of open source software. Customers will now have access to a single, proven global production support organization that can service both Red Hat and JBoss customers, in addition to procuring JBoss offerings through the established global channels of Red Hat. With this acquisition, Red Hat continues to lead the widespread adoption of open source solutions for the enterprise, demonstrating the power of its development model to create innovative, high quality software, while simultaneously providing flexible and cost-effective solutions for customers.

Marc Fleury, founder and former CEO of JBoss and now Senior Vice President and General Manager of the JBoss division of Red Hat, noted: "Joining forces with Red Hat makes absolute sense for JBoss employees, customers, partners and the community as a whole. We share a common passion for innovation, technology and open source. Red Hat will give JBoss a platform to grow, so we can both continue to deliver exceptional open source products, services and customer value. I am personally very excited to help further drive the adoption of our market-leading solutions."

"As one of the largest and most experienced global benefits providers servicing more than 10 million plan participants across all markets, CitiStreet depends on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss for our operations every day," said Barry Strasnick, Chief Information Officer, CitiStreet. "We have realized the value of open source for the enterprise, especially in the areas of cost-savings, performance and security. The acquisition of JBoss by Red Hat will only benefit our future management, development and deployment."

"At Orbitz, we currently use both JBoss Application Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We believe the acquisition of JBoss and its integration with Red Hat will support our efforts to be more cost effective as we develop and deploy applications," said Chuck Clark, Director of Platform Technology, Orbitz. "We look forward to a more seamless integration of JBoss middleware components with Red Hat enterprise solutions."

Red Hat Outlines Enterprise Strategy

The combination of Red Hat's proven portfolio of enterprise infrastructure solutions and JBoss' standards-based middleware technologies will help accelerate the shift to SOA by making innovative, powerful solutions available to developers and customers seeking to lower development and deployment costs.

"The JBoss product portfolio is an excellent technology fit with Red Hat's current enterprise solutions," said Al Gillen, Research Vice President, System Software, IDC. "The combination of Red Hat and JBoss will drive further innovations for the open source ecosystem -- yet by maintaining JBoss as a division, JBoss customers aboard other platforms should see continuity with the JBoss products they use."

For more information on the acquisition of JBoss, please visit http://www.redhat.com/promo/jboss. To read Red Hat's partner support, please visit http://www.redhat.com/promo/jboss/partner.html. Red Hat will also discuss its enterprise strategy at JBoss World. For information on JBoss World and to learn how to attend, please visit http://www.jbossworld.com.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. The most trusted name in open source, CIOs and other senior-level IT executives have ranked Red Hat as the industry's most valued vendor for two consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com