Compaq, IBM, Novell, and Oracle Take Equity Positions in Leading
Linux Software Builder to Help Bring Powerful Open Source Operating
System to Their Customers
Research Triangle, N.C.-March 9, 1999-Red Hat® Software,
Inc., the leading builder of the Linux operating system, announced
today that it has accepted offers of equity investments from
Compaq, International Business Machines (IBM), Novell, and Oracle
Corporation. These industry leaders will all take minority equity
positions in Red Hat. The financial terms were not disclosed for
any of these relationships by Red Hat or its partners.
The announcement follows months of tremendous momentum for
privately-held Red Hat, including equity investments from Intel,
Netscape and venture capital firms Greylock and Benchmark Partners
in September 1998.
“Red Hat chose Compaq, IBM, Novell, and Oracle as equity
partners because of their leadership positions in the computing
industry. Their support of Red Hat is a broad endorsement of the
Open Source Software model that is changing the entire software
industry and driving the rapid adoption and success of Linux,” said
Robert F. Young, co-founder and CEO of Red Hat Software. “The
support of a such a stellar group of leaders creates even more
momentum for the Open Source Software movement and for Linux as a
powerful, reliable, cost-effective and safe choice for any
computing environment.”
More than 10 million users currently run the Linux operating
system. According to IDC Research, Linux was the fastest-growing
server operating environment in 1998, capturing more than 17
percent of all server operating system shipments. Red Hat Software
builds, maintains and provides technical support for the Official
Red Hat Linux operating system. Linux runs on Intel, Alpha and Sun
SPARC platforms and will soon run on PowerPC systems.
Today’s announcement of equity funding by the leaders of the
computing industry caps a month of major announcements from Red
Hat. Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Dell and IBM each announced plans to
support Red Hat Linux on a variety of server and workstation
systems. At last week’s LinuxWorld Expo, Red Hat unveiled a new web
portal (www.redhat.com) designed to be the primary web destination
for anyone interested in Linux news, support, products and
community information.
About Linux
Linux is the cooperatively developed POSIX-oriented, multi-user,
multi-tasking operating system used worldwide. Linux is strongly
differentiated from virtually all other operating systems because
it is “open source” software, with the source code freely available
to all users. Unlike binary-only operating systems that restrict
access to the source code, Linux benefits from a worldwide
community of highly experienced programmers and technically savvy
academics who have the access to enhance and improve the system.
Linux is used as an exceptional-value, fully functional UNIX
workstation for Internet servers and other applications. Red Hat
Linux is maintained as “freely distributable” software available
from many sites on the Internet.
About Red Hat ® Software, Inc.
Founded in 1994, Red Hat Software is based in Research Triangle
Park, NC, where it builds and maintains the award winning Red Hat
Linux operating system. Working in cooperation with a huge
development team of research, academic, and commercial software
developers over the Internet, Red Hat’s goal is to build the most
accessible and advanced operating system available anywhere. Red
Hat Linux for Intel®, Compaq AlphaServer?, and Sun SPARC®
platforms continues to gain recognition in the computer industry.
>From 1996 to the present, Red Hat Linux was named InfoWorld’s
Product of the Year three times, was given a Productivity accolade
in Software Development’s “Jolt” Awards, was named an
Environment/Desktop finalist in the Ziff-Davis European Excellence
Awards, won the editor’s choice awards from both the Linux Journal
and Australian Personal Computing magazines, and won the “Just
Plain Cool” award.
About Compaq (NYSE:CPQ)
About IBM (NYSE: IBM)
IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with
80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM creates,
develops and manufactures the industry’s most advanced information
technologies, including computer systems, software, networking
systems, storage devices, and microelectronics. The fastest way to
get more information about IBM is through the IBM home page at
http://www.ibm.com.
About Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL)
Novell, Inc. is the world’s largest network software company and
the leader in directory-enabled network solutions. Novell solutions
make networks more manageable, secure and affordable for
organizations of every kind and size. Novell’s worldwide channel,
developer, education and technical support programs are the most
extensive in the network computing industry. For information on
Novell’s complete range of products and services, contact Novell’s
Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272), or visit
Novell’s Web site at www.novell.com. Press may access Novell
announcements and company information on the World Wide Web at
www.novell.com/pressroom.
Novell Internet Equity Fund
The Novell Internet Equity Fund promotes Novell’s interests in
advancing innovative networking technologies. The $50 million fund
typically makes investments in development-stage software companies
that are in their first or second rounds of financing. The fund is
focused on software products that support NDS and Java applications
that run on servers, such as Novell’s NetWare 5, for distribution
across networks. Companies interested in the Fund can find more
information about it at http://developer.novell.com/fund/.
About Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) Oracle Corporation is the world’s
leading supplier of software for information management, and the
world’s second largest independent software company. With annual
revenues of more than $8.0 billion, the company offers its
database, tools and application products, along with related
consulting, education, and support services, in more than 145
countries around the world. For more information about Oracle,
please call 650/506-7000. Oracle’s Worldwide Web address is (URL)
http://www.oracle.com/.
For more information or to interview representatives from the
participating companies, contact these people:
Compaq: Kristen Wilson kwilson@golinharris.com 617-266-8400
IBM: Theo Chisholm, theoc@us.ibm.com 914-766-1180
Oracle: Elizabeth Orgel, eorgel@us.oracle.com 650-506-2921
Novell: John Pilmer, jpilmer@novell.com 801-222-5109
For more information about Red Hat Software and Red Hat products
and technologies, please call 1-888-REDHAT1 or visit our web site
at http://www.redhat.com. Reviews encouraged.
###
LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered
trademark of Red Hat Software, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark
of The Open Group.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation.
Compaq is a trademark of Compaq Computer Corporation.
AlphaServer is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark
office.
All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.
For More Information:
Bryan Scanlon, Dave Close or Jennifer Aprile
Schwartz Communications for Red Hat
Phone: (781) 684-0770
redhat@schwartz-pr.com