RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.---May 9, 2000---Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ:
RHAT), the market leader in open source Internet infrastructure solutions, today announced the formation of Red Hat Ventures, a new division of Red Hat devoted to supporting Open Source and Internet infrastructure startups through a combination of direct venture funding and strategic business relationships with Red Hat. Red Hat Ventures' objective is to leverage Red Hat's leadership in the Open Source & Linux market to accelerate the breadth of tools, services and technologies available to customers, and deliver on the promise of making Linux and other Open Source technologies the platform of choice for deploying and extending Internet infrastructure.
Red Hat has already taken stakes in a number of key Open Source-related startups, including Sendmail Inc., Rackspace.com, ZoneTrader.com, Techies.com and e-smith. Red Hat Ventures will be accelerating its investment activity, taking stakes of $500,000-$2,000,000 in exciting new companies while simultaneously establishing significant business relationships with those companies. Rackspace.com and Zonetrader.com are key partners in the recently launched redhat.com Marketplace (www.redhat.com/marketplace).
``It was important to us that Red Hat Ventures be much more than a source of financing for these companies,'' said Matthew Szulik, President and CEO of Red Hat. ``As the leading provider of Linux-based Internet infrastructure solutions, we see huge opportunities in creating true partnerships with these companies: we accelerate their ability to reach the global Linux market and they enhance our ability to offer the broadest range of Internet solutions to enterprise customers.''
Red Hat Ventures will be jointly managed by Mattew Szulik, Harold Covert, Chief Financial Officer and Howard Jacobson, Director of Corporate Development.
``Red Hat Ventures is a natural extension of the overall Red Hat business plan,'' said Covert. ``For our customers, Red Hat Ventures scales our ability to bring together the elements of the full Open Source ecosystem for Internet infrastructure. For Red Hat, these investments will enhance revenue streams, expand our customer base, and increase the variety of products and services offered through redhat.com.''
Companies that wish to participate in the program should visit Red Hat on the Web at www.redhat.com/ventures.
About Red Hat, Inc.
Founded in 1994, Red Hat (NASDAQ:RHAT), is the leading provider of open source, Internet infrastructure solutions, delivering on the promise of open source from small embedded devices to the most prodigious enterprise. Red Hat applies its technological leadership to create open
source solutions for Internet infrastructure and post-PC environments,offers services backed by the best understanding of open source and the most comprehensive resources, delivers the brand of a widely trusted open source leader and corporate partner, and persists in an indelible commitment to the virtues of open source to lead a revolution in the computing industry.
Red Hat is based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and has offices worldwide. To learn about Red Hat's perennially renowned products and services or its unfailing commitment to the GNU General Public License (GPL) and other public licenses, visit Red Hat on the Web at www.redhat.com. For investor inquiries, contact Lippert/Heilshorn at (212) 838-3777.
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LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to the safe harbour provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release that are not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding management's plans and objectives for future operations, and management's assessment of market factors, constitute forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, Red Hat's ability to continue to develop its product and services offerings, Red Hat's dependence upon an open source business model, reliance upon independent third-party Linux developers, management of growth, reliance upon strategic relationships, expansion of Red Hat's business focus and operations, the possibility of undetected software errors, the enforceability of the GNU General Public License and other licenses under which Red Hat's products are developed and licensed, the scarcity of Linux-based applications, the risks of economic downturns generally, and in Red Hat's industry specifically, the risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures, the viability of the Internet, year 2000 compliance efforts of Red Hat and of third parties on which Red Hat depends, and other risks detailed in Red Hat's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be accessed through the SEC's Web site at http://www.sec.gov.
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