April 10, 2006 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Linux software developer and service provider Red Hat (redhat.com) announced on Monday it is acquiring open source provider JBoss (jboss.com) in a deal worth up to $420 million. Red Hat is paying approximately 40 percent in cash and the rest in stock for JBoss.
JBoss has long been rumoured to be acquired by a number of different heavyweight companies including IBM. The privately held company was founded by CEO Marc Fleury, is supported by venture capital firms Matrix Partners, Accel Partners, Intel Capital and Bain Capital. Its first product, JBoss Application Server for Java-based program applications, was launched in 1999.
In a conference call held on Monday morning, Red Hat chief executive officer Matthew Szulik said that the market demand for integrated open source solutions was apparent, and that the JBoss acquisition re-affirms Red Hat’s commitment to delivering an integrated open sources platform. Szulik also said in a statement that he is convinced the deal would help push further innovation in open source development.
Seventy million of the $420 million acquisition price is based on JBoss meeting certain performance metrics, said Red Hat in a statement. The acquisition is part of its strategy to "accelerate" a shift to service-oriented architectures rather than traditional proprietary software environments.
