IBM announced on July 9 that it completed its agreement to buy Red Hat, an open-source software provider, for $34 billion. In a press release, IBM said that Red Hat will maintain its “independence and neutrality” in the marketplace and that Red Hat’s “unwavering commitment to open source remains unchanged.” With the purchase, IBM intends to use Red Hat’s expertise to “deliver next-generation hybrid multi-cloud platform.” In terms of leadership, Jim Whitehurst will continue to lead Red Hat and he will join IBM’s senior management team, reporting to IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. “[Customers] want to build more collaborative cultures, and they need solutions that give them the flexibility to build and deploy any app or workload, anywhere,” said Whitehurst. “We think open source has become the de facto standard in technology because it enables these solutions. Joining forces with IBM gives Red Hat the opportunity to bring more open source innovation to an even broader range of organizations and will enable us to scale to meet the need for hybrid cloud solutions that deliver true choice and agility.”
