IBM Closes Its $34 Billion Purchase of Red Hat

[Tsing]

Red Hat officially has a new lord and master. IBM closed its $34 billion acquisition of the open-source software company today, placing it under its hybrid cloud division. This happens to be Big Blue's biggest deal ever.

IBM is hoping the purchase improves its cloud business so it can better compete with Amazon, Microsoft, and other market leaders. According to CNBC, the company's revenue has been down year over year for three consecutive quarters.

The acquisition of Red Hat, an open-source, enterprise software maker, marks the close of IBM’s largest deal ever. It’s one of the biggest in U.S. tech history. Excluding the AOL-Time Warner merger, it follows the $67 billion deal between Dell and EMC in 2016 and JDS Uniphase’s $41 billion acquisition of optical-component supplier SDL in 2000.

 

[Dan_D]

With IBM swirling down the drain how in the hell did they come up with 34 billion dollars to buy Red Hat?

 

[Grimlakin]

IBM is a big... uhhh.. toilet bowl in your example @Dan_D I wouldn't worry too much about them going away. I've seen them at 40 bucks a share and at 120 a share over the past 20 years and they always come back around. The staggering number of patents they hold and license out alone probably covers that purchase on licensing fees alone.

You want carbon nonotubes are a great example. Fast small CPU's.

Anyway that's why the company still generates capitol year over year. And just wait until they decide to start charging licensing fees for Redhat.

 

[Strelok]

With IBM swirling down the drain how in the hell did they come up with 34 billion dollars to buy Red Hat?

They are still making multiple billions in NET profits, which is something everyone seems to always forget.