AOL in negotiations to buy Red Hat

[the_g_nee]

Not one to normally cut n paste news articals i find, but I thought this maybe of interest to many here :-

By Alec Klein,
Washington Post Staff Writer

AOL Time Warner Inc. is in talks to buy Red Hat Inc., a prominent distributor of a computer operating system, an acquisition that would position the media giant to challenge arch rival Microsoft Corp., according to sources familiar with the matter.

Red Hat, a publicly traded firm based in Durham, N.C., sells products and services based on the Linux operating system, the freely available software developed collaboratively by volunteers. Linux is designed for a wide variety of gear, running corporate computer servers and consumer devices such as personal computers, cell phones and video games.

The Red Hat negotiations –which are still fluid – are the latest indication that AOL Time Warner, the world's largest media company, is looking for alternatives to software made by Microsoft, whose Windows operating system runs 90 percent of the world's PCs. The longtime competitors have fought over an array of rival consumer technologies lately, including online subscription services, instant-messaging systems and Web-based video and audio players.

Officials of AOL, Red Hat and Microsoft declined to comment.

More HERE.

Would AOL buying out Red Hat be a good idea? Personally I feel the more people who are given an alternative to M$'s products the better - I just bought Red Hat 7.2 today - real competition is what is needed in the O/S world. Though perhaps Red Hat fans might start to use another Linux O/S if the buy out was to go ahead.

[the_JinX]

didn't i see this thread a wile back???
must be a deja-vu

[KorpDeath]

There goes the neighborhood...

[oblio]

AOL Time Warner Not in Talks with Red Hat

By Reshma Kapadia and Adam Pasick

NEW YORK (Reuters) - AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news) said Tuesday it was not in talks to buy with Linux (news - web sites) distributor Red Hat Inc. (Nasdaq:RHAT - news), quashing a published report, but analysts said a future partnership between the companies would make sense.

A Washington Post article over the weekend reported that AOL Time Warner was in ``fluid'' talks to buy Red Hat, citing sources familiar with the matter.

``The Washington Post story is incorrect,'' spokesman Andrew Weinstein told Reuters. ``AOL is not in negotiations with Red Hat.''

Several analysts said that while a merger did not make much sense, there were several opportunities for partnerships between AOL and Red Hat, a major distributor of alternative operating system Linux -- whose underlying code is freely available, unlike the closely guarded proprietary code of companies like Microsoft Corp.(Nasdaq:MSFT - news)

A partnership with Red Hat could help AOL boost subscriptions to its online service, while avoiding the dominance of Microsoft's Windows on the desktop.

``People primarily access AOL on computers that run on Windows,'' said IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky. ``Linux could be a way for AOL to get access to software that would drive a consumer-focused network computer, which wouldn't run on Windows.''

Merrill Lynch analyst Peter von Schilling said in a research note that the two companies could work together on several potential deals. One such pact could make AOL a RedHat enterprise Linux customer.

Another could see AOL transfer or outsource its Netscape browser to Red Hat to support and bolster its existing Mozilla open source project, which developed Netscape's code.

``AOL has an incentive to see the standards-based, independent Netscape browser be successful so that consumer Web sites don't become dominated by Microsoft optimized 'standards' such as '.NET.'''

The Internet and media giant could also partner with Red Hat to create a design road map for software to be built in to electronic devices based on Linux/Open Source software.

A Red Hat spokeswoman declined to comment, but said the company would be making announcements at Linux World next week -- a conference where companies often announce new product launches and deals. She declined to comment further on the nature of the announcements.

Shares of Red Hat lost 97 cents to close at $7.44. AOL Time Warner shares lost $1.18 to close at $28.40.

[gold eagle]

with all the talk about buying / not buying redhat, someone must be interested in it.

How would you react if IBM bought it?


oh - oh sees a flame torch light up.

[Tortured Spirit]

Originally posted by the_JinX
didn't i see this thread a wile back???
must be a deja-vu

been there...talked about that...

here

and here

[KorpDeath]

Originally posted by gold eagle
with all the talk about buying / not buying redhat, someone must be interested in it.

How would you react if IBM bought it?


oh - oh sees a flame torch light up.

They wouldn't hurt the product much I'm sure, but then again they aren't the best at marketing so it'd probably die soon after they took over ths ship. Remeber OS/2?

[{P²P}Apocalypse]

IBM would'nt be so bad. They have deployed all their top line servers with Tux now. If AOL got it though. I shuder to think about it. Can you imagine Tux the pinguin with a big blazing AOL icon on his chest. LOL Anyway, needless to say AOL is good at getting other peoples products and taking them over. Then mass marketing to it's hord of mindless sheep. Hmmmmmm. Does the way AOL is growing remind us of anyone? Hey Bill you better watch AOL. Remember what you did with DOS, the mouse, the gui, and the toolbar/start button. Looks like AOL is following in MS's footsteps.

Long live Tux....................