also @ TechSpot: LG Display announces 5.0-inch, 1080p AH-IPS display for smartphones

Red Hat nears $1 billion in revenue

By

On March 24, 2011, 7:31 PM EST

In March 2008, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst predicted that his company would be the first pure play open source software vendor to reach $1 billion in revenue. That forecast has nearly come to fruition. According to the organization's latest earnings report, Red Hat raked in $909.3 million during fiscal 2011, an increase of 22% on-year. Fourth quarter revenue totaled $244.8 million, up 25% from the year-ago period, while quarterly and yearly subscription revenue rose 21% and 24%.

"With record bookings and billings in the fourth quarter, we are on a run rate to become the first pure-play open source company to achieve a billion dollars in revenues next fiscal year, a milestone achievement for Red Hat and the open source community," said Whitehurst. He attributes the growth to strong demand by enterprise customers who are preparing their infrastructure for cloud computing, as Red Hat is increasingly focused on providing cloud-based products and services.


"This year we focused on growth with aggressive hiring for sales and engineering, launched major product releases and invested in technologies focused on cloud computing. These investments produced greater than 20% growth in revenues and non-GAAP operating income for both the quarter and the year. At the same time, we increased non-GAAP operating margins by 110 basis points and improved cash flow. It was a good year," said Executive Vice President and CFO Charlie Peters.

Related Stories

User Comments (12)

Post a comment
Lurker101
on March 24, 2011
7:33 PM

Microsoft will notice.

Microsoft will see a threat.

Microsoft will attack.

Also, is the picture for this article intentional?

Reply

Matthew
on March 24, 2011
7:57 PM

Yep: [link]

Reply

Lurker101
on March 24, 2011
8:00 PM

I thought that was a Red Hat based Fedora joke

Reply

lawfer
on March 24, 2011
9:22 PM

Normally I would say 1 billion dollars in revenue is not that much for large companies, given the fact that expenses are not deducted from these numbers... What is always surprising is the actual net income. But what is so surprising about this article is, that I assume the fixed/variable costs of a software engineering company is little in comparison to, say, Toyota.

In other words, I assume the actual income of this company is around, what, 200 million dollars? That's a heck of a lot of money for a bunch people sitting on computers coding stuff (I mean no offense with my simple generalization).

Reply

captaincranky
on March 24, 2011
9:29 PM

I wouldn't be caught dead in that hat, let alone running Linux.

It looks like something "Tommy Tunes" might wear while playing the lead in, "Casablanca, the Musical"... Dammit, we still don't have a "smiley licking its pinky and then grooming its eyebrows with it", emoticon.

Reply

Lurker101
on March 24, 2011
10:55 PM

It's alright, you don't have to wear a hat to run Linux. You don't even have to run a hat based Linux.

Reply

Per Hansson
on March 25, 2011
3:05 AM

Well, we here at Techspot are proud Red Hat owners

Reply

red1776
on March 25, 2011
3:10 AM

Well, we here at Techspot are proud Red Hat owners

Yes we are! ....I have a propeller on mine.

Reply

Guest
on March 25, 2011
9:13 AM

mmm Makes me wish ubuntu would pick up some steam on the company side of things. They have a amazing Linux OS but primary desktop models. I wasn't really a fan of red hat my self then again I'm not a company XD.

Reply

captaincranky
on March 25, 2011
10:57 AM

Well, we here at Techspot are proud Red Hat owners
Yes we are! ....I have a propeller on mine.
Just my luck, running into two season ticket holders to ""Les Miserables"....:p

Reply

Guest
on March 25, 2011
11:03 AM

They made as much as Activision selling Black Ops... :/ weird...

Anyway, it seems that Open Source can a lucrative model. Go Red Hat!

Reply

red1776
on March 25, 2011
11:07 AM

Just my luck, running into two season ticket holders to ""Les Miserables"....:p

What!? you cant get season tickets to....Oh you minx!:p

Reply

Browse more commented news

Post a new comment

Guest user

To post as an anonymous
user click here
.

Members

If you are a TechSpot member,
please login first.


By signing up you gain complete access to the TechSpot community. Join thousands of computer and technology enthusiasts that contribute and share knowledge in our forum. Post messages, get a private inbox, upload your own photo gallery and more.

Subscribe to TechSpot

Get free exclusive content, learn about new features and tech breaking news.