Yesterday around 6PM, IBM announced the purchase of the company Red Hat for 34 billions dollars.
This announcement appeals to investissors from both sides: IBM buys a company known for its innovation; Red Hat’s shareholders get a good value for their shares.
However, it is unclear what will happen to Red Hat product portfolio: OpenShift, CentOS, Fedora, …
We also do not know how Red Hat employees, and even more ex-CoreOS employees will react to this culture change, plan to stay in this new subsidiary or create start-ups …
I have always liked the spirit of independance of Red Hat. Now, I do not know if the company will maintain its momentum in this new configuration.
I only know one thing: people who think nothing will change are wrong.
The next couple of years will be rather interesting to watch!
Yes, but I am rather pessimistic. And yet, I would not want to be!
I was a believer in what Red Hat do, their way of doing business that’s based on Open Source, contributions to many free software projects (e.g. GNOME), with Linux kernel being the most important one IMO.
The time will show whether this changes or not.
Like you I am pessimistic and I sincerely hope IBM doesn’t destroy RH like EMC has done to VMware.