Explore Jobs
Find Specific Jobs
Explore Careers
Explore Professions
Best Companies
Explore Companies
Red Hat history
Red Hat company history timeline
In 1993 Young started another computer company, ACC Corp., which was a UNIX reseller business.
In 1993 Bob Young created a company called ACC Corporation that he says he ran from his wife’s “sewing closet”. The name ACC was intended to represent a catalog business but was also an abbreviation of a small business his wife ran called Antiques and Collectables of Connecticut.
1994: Red Hat Software, Inc. is founded by Robert F. Young and Mark Ewing.
Developing Its Own Version of Linux: 1995-98
In 1995, ACC acquired Red Hat and adopted the name Red Hat, Inc.
Young bought Ewing's business in 1995, and the two merged to become Red Hat Software, with Young serving as chief executive officer (CEO).
The company's first round of strategic financing was completed in September 1998, when it received financial backing from Intel and Netscape Communications as well as from venture capital firms Benchmark Capital and Greylock Management.
By 1998, when Red Hat released version 5.2 of its Red Hat Linux, there were 12 million Linux users.
Red Hat became a more established organization in 1998.
In the spring of 1998 Red Hat began pursuing a strategy of building tight partnerships with industry-leading technology companies.
Red Hat filed for its initial public offering (IPO) in June 1999 and hoped to raise about $96 million.
Version 6.0 was also featured on Red Hat's e-commerce server, which included encryption capabilities and e-commerce software from Hewlett-Packard; it was introduced in July 1999.
Red Hat went public on August 11, 1999, achieving—at the time—the eighth-biggest first-day gain in the history of Wall Street.
On November 15, 1999, Red Hat acquired Cygnus Solutions.
In December 1999 Dell and Red Hat extended their alliance, with Dell committing to install Red Hat Linux on all of its current and future PowerEdge servers.
IBM, which had been experiencing demand from its UNIX customers for an open source solution, partnered with Red Hat early in 1999.
In addition to gaining financial support from computer industry leaders, Red Hat entered into strategic agreements with computer firms IBM and Dell in 1999.
Red Hat went public in 1999 with a record-breaking IPO. The IPO also came with an update to the Shadowman logo—the icon got “cleaned up,” and Red Hat was spelled in more professional type.
Bob Young left the company in 1999 and has since gone on to start Lulu, a company that provides self-publishing services to book authors.
In January 2000 Red Hat acquired e-commerce software vendor Hell's Kitchen Systems Inc. for $91 million in stock.
Around the same time in April 2000 Red Hat introduced redhat.com Marketplace, a portal where vendors could find software, hardware, and support services for open source products.
In September 2000 Red Hat announced the creation of the Red Hat Network, a new Internet-based subscription service for developers and users.
With its stock trading around $5 a share, Red Hat reported a net loss of $5.98 million on revenue of $84 million for its fiscal year ending February 28, 2001.
Red Hat's stock received a boost in November 2001 when the company announced it would collaborate with IBM to deliver open source software solutions, services, and support for the entire IBM eServer product line.
30. "Significant Developments for RHAT from Multex.com," November 29, 2001, http://yahoo.marketguide.com.
2001: Red Hat reports its first quarterly profit.
Red Hat moved its headquarters from Durham to North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus in Raleigh, North Carolina in February 2002.
Bob Young went on to found the online print on demand and self-publishing company, Lulu in 2002.
In December 2005, CIO Insight magazine conducted its annual "Vendor Value Survey", in which Red Hat ranked #1 in value for the second year in a row.
Red Hat stock became part of the NASDAQ-100 on December 19, 2005.
Held for the first time in New Orleans in 2005, Red Hat Summit is a chance for Red Hat's customers, partners, and community to learn, network, and experience all that enterprise open source has to offer.
Red Hat acquired open-source middleware provider JBoss on June 5, 2006, and JBoss became a division of Red Hat.
On September 18, 2006, Red Hat released the Red Hat Application Stack, which integrated the JBoss technology and which was certified by other well-known software vendors.
On March 15, 2007, Red Hat released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and in June acquired Mobicents.
Jim Whitehurst became President and CEO of Red Hat in December 2007.
On March 13, 2008, Red Hat acquired Amentra, a provider of systems integration services for service-oriented architecture, business process management, systems development and enterprise data services.
One of the founders of Cygnus, Michael Tiemann, became the chief technical officer of Red Hat and by 2008 the vice president of open-source affairs.
In 2009 he initiated a new collaborative mission statement that told the world not only of Red Hat’s dedication to open source but also to the open source way:
On January 10, 2011, Red Hat announced that it would expand its headquarters in two phases, adding 540 employees to the Raleigh operation, and investing over US$109 million.
On August 25, 2011, Red Hat announced it would move about 600 employees from the N.C. State Centennial Campus to the Two Progress Plaza building.
In 2012, Red Hat became the first open source technology company to surpass more than US$1 billion in revenue.
On October 16, 2015, Red Hat announced its acquisition of IT automation startup Ansible, rumored for an estimated US$100 million.
Red Hat passed the $2 billion benchmark in 2015.
In June 2017, Red Hat announced Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure (RHHI) 1.0 software product
Six months later, on May 3, 2019, the US Department of Justice concluded its review of IBM's proposed Red Hat acquisition, and according to Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols "essentially approved the IBM/Red Hat deal". The acquisition was closed on July 9, 2019.
Rate how well Red Hat lives up to its initial vision.
Red Hat jobs
Do you work at Red Hat?
Is Red Hat's vision a big part of strategic planning?
Red Hat competitors
| Company Name | Founded Date | Revenue | Employee Size | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VMware | 1998 | $13.4B | 31,000 | 4 |
| Adobe | 1982 | $21.5B | 11,847 | 868 |
| Sybase | 1991 | - | 3,576 | - |
| Juniper Networks | 1996 | $5.1B | 9,400 | 140 |
| Sophos | 1996 | $65.2M | 3,600 | 53 |
| FreeBSD | 1993 | $9.4M | 299 | - |
| Triniti | 1997 | $21.4M | 420 | 3 |
| JDA Software Inc | 1991 | $691.2M | 794 | - |
| Dassault Systèmes | 1981 | $37.5B | 1,672 | - |
| Bullhorn | 1999 | $219.9M | 100 | 5 |
Red Hat history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Red Hat, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Red Hat. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Red Hat. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Red Hat. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Red Hat and its employees or that of Zippia.
Red Hat may also be known as or be related to RED HAT INC, Red Hat, Red Hat Inc, Red Hat Inc. and Red Hat, Inc.