Linux Maker Red Hat Gets New Heavyweight Backers
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Tuesday March 9 11:06 AM ET
Linux Maker Red Hat Gets New Heavyweight Backers
DURHAM, N.C. (Reuters) - Red Hat Software Inc., a top supplier of Linux, an alternative computer operating system to Microsoft's Windows software, Tuesday said that four major computer makers had invested in the company.
In a statement, Red Hat said Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news), Novell Inc. (Nasdaq:NOVL - news) and Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq:ORCL - news) had made minority equity investments in the company, joining earlier investors Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news) and Netscape Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:NSCP - news)
Financial terms of the investments were not disclosed.
''Red Hat chose Compaq, IBM, Novell and Oracle as equity partners because of their leadership positions in the computing industry,'' said Robert F. Young, co-founder and chief executive of Red Hat, in a statement.
The equity investment marks the latest show of support for Red Hat from major industry players. Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news), Compaq, Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq:DELL - news) and IBM had earlier announced plans to support Red Hat Linux on a variety of server and workstation systems.
Software giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) has said it sees so-called ''open source'' software like Linux as a competitive threat to its dominant Windows franchise. Linux backers view the software as more stable than Windows NT in complex networked computer systems, especially for computers managing Web sites.
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