Posted on 10/28/2018 4:02:03 PM PDT by Java4Jay
IBM Corp said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire U.S. software company Red Hat Inc for $34 billion, including debt, as it seeks to diversify its technology hardware and consulting business into higher-margin products and services.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
IBM bought Red Hat for its Linux corporate server software, the best in the world.
I am a member of the IBM team who is trying to get IBM back into the computing game.
I hope its not too late.
Very smart.
Sounds like a lot to pay for a company that sells free software.
Just don’t take what you want and throw the rest to the Chinese
Does Red Hat do a lot of cloud computing?
Can you do something to make Lotus Notes friendly, intuitive, and less bloated?
It’s some horrible software.
I’m just ranting. Any chance to bash Lotus Notes is never passed up.
The only reason anyone still uses Notes is because getting off of it is so painful.
Red Hat is a #metoo cloud player. Their real strength is locking down the OS and applying security patches even though that means delaying the latest features. Government uses a lot of Red Hat mainly for that reason. I don’t think this will be bad for IBM but it seems a little pricey, way too high a multiple of revenue.
Anybody can download and install it. It takes a lot of knowledge to support it. Support is where the money is.
That’s a chunk-a-change.
Some of my eastern European colleagues actually love Notes and are ones insisting on it stay in use.
Maybe it comes from those decades of communist oppression. Notes is an oppressive environment.
Red Hat is proprietary and they charge up for their Linux software. It isn’t free - which is why businesses run it and get Red Hat support to maintain it.
They do a little more than that.
"Red Hat's strategic planning isn't like yours, but with 64 straight quarters of revenue growth and continuing on course to become the first billion-dollar-a-quarter open-source company, the Linux and cloud power is clearly on to something."
https://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hats-only-business-plan-is-to-keep-changing-plans/
It was developed an an alternative to Unix.
Bad idea. I expect IBM to drop 10% on this horrible desperate deal. $34B for a company doing $3B. IBM only has $14.5B of cash including marketable securities. It will borrow most of it, already has $47B in debt.
One thing I miss about Lotus Notes from 25 years ago - the ability to pull back an errant email. Don’t know if that’s still possible.
Would have saved 1 boss back then from an accidental “reply-all”. Oops for him.
Sounds like a lot to pay for a company that sells free software.
Not as bad as AT&T’s mindless purchase of DirectTV for $48B, but close.
You could hire away a bunch of folks for $34 billion.
And the way these tech takeovers usually work, a bunch of the guys at the takeover target are going to be gone within 18 months. Sure, some of them can have their knowledge extracted before they flee or are discarded, but 6 figure signing bonuses could probably reach the same result a lot cheaper.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.