Linux giant enters into definitive agreement to acquire open source middleware vendor

Red Hat has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire open source middleware specialist jBoss for approximately $350m.

The transaction is composed of approximately 40 per cent cash and 60 per cent Red Hat common stock and will include a further $70m subject to the achievement of certain future performance metrics. The acquisition is expected to be completed around the end of Red Hat’s first fiscal quarter next month.

Matthew Szulik, chief executive of Red Hat said: “It is at Red Hat’s very core to help unlock the power of open source and open communities to innovate across industries, geographies and economies.

“Red Hat and JBoss are fully aligned around the belief that the open source development model continues to change the economics of enterprise IT in favour of the customer and we truly believe in the potential of software innovation, once freed from the fetters of proprietary development.”

Marc Fleury, chief executive of JBoss said: “The union of these two companies will demonstrate the benefits of a pure open source play. Our customers are increasingly standardising their infrastructures on open source technologies and want a stable and trusted global open source vendor to support them. By joining forces with Red Hat, we expect to be able to provide enterprises the largest offering of open source solutions, a global services network staffed by technology experts, and a large and vibrant eco-system of certified products and services. This is a winning combination that we believe will further expedite the proliferation of open source in the enterprise, which has been our mission since day one."