“Red Hat Inc. said last week that it plans to buy E-commerce
software vendor Hell’s Kitchen Systems Inc. for approximately $91
million in stock to enhance Red Hat’s Linux platform.”
“Red Hat, the leading vendor of the open-source Linux operating
system, plans to incorporate Hell’s Kitchen’s open-source
E-commerce payment-processing software into its Red Hat Linux
distribution, which packages the Linux kernel with applications and
services.”
“Hell’s Kitchen, which was founded in 1994, offers a
credit-card verification system that Internet service providers and
online merchants can incorporate into open-source Web servers.
The Hell’s Kitchen package includes protocols that let ISPs
communicate directly with banks to clear credit-card transactions
for online purchases, eliminating the fees associated with using a
third-party clearinghouse.”