IBM acquires Red Hat

#1

Post by nopriorarrests » Sun, Oct 28, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

IBM acquires Red Hat
redhat.com

Re: IBM acquires Red Hat

#2

Post by downrightmike » Sun, Oct 28, 2018, 6:09 PM UTC

Fuck. RH seemed like a good company, and for it to go into a slow wasting death at IBM is a bummer.

Re: IBM acquires Red Hat

#3

Post by pinewurst » Sun, Oct 28, 2018, 6:14 PM UTC

Hoping this is false! IBM is the worst of acquirers and they treat their people like utter garbage, especially the more experienced ones.

If there's any truth to this, it means those in charge have basically given up - assuming growth is capped and/or that the big return of a buyout premium would counter recent stock pricing setbacks.

(Update: now officially announced!)

Re: IBM acquires Red Hat

#4

Post by wereHamster » Sun, Oct 28, 2018, 6:14 PM UTC

Is this event comparable to when Oracle bought Sun? Should we expect IBM to rip RH apart and alienate all existing customers?

Re: IBM acquires Red Hat

#5

Post by pinewurst » Sun, Oct 28, 2018, 6:17 PM UTC

wereHamster wrote: post #4

Is this event comparable to when Oracle bought Sun? Should we expect IBM to rip RH apart and alienate all existing customers?

It's worse, IMHO. IBM treats their customers as prey just like Oracle plus they treat their own people worse. I know people who've had the IBM licensing ninja squad show up at their door for surprise validation with a big bill as a result.

Re: IBM acquires Red Hat

#6

Post by xienze » Sun, Oct 28, 2018, 6:18 PM UTC

Wow, if this is true, my condolences. I was a former IBMer and Red Hat folks, your world is about to be turned upside down.

Re: IBM acquires Red Hat

#7

Post by ausjke » Sun, Oct 28, 2018, 6:19 PM UTC

The only positive side I can think of is that, Microsoft did not buy RH before IBM does.

This is a threat to OSS, sadly.

Maybe Google or Amazon will buy Canonical soon?

Re: IBM acquires Red Hat

#8

Post by seanmcdirmid » Sun, Oct 28, 2018, 6:20 PM UTC

ausjke wrote: post #7

The only positive side I can think of is that, Microsoft did not buy RH before IBM does. This is a threat to OSS, sadly. Maybe Google or Amazon will buy Canonical soon?

I see IBM as being worse than MS as a company. They have steadily imploded over the last 20 years.

Re: IBM acquires Red Hat

#9

Post by bdavis__ » Sun, Oct 28, 2018, 6:23 PM UTC

RedHat can be replicated. Not cheap, and it will take a few years. What do I mean? Well, IBM will slaughter this goose very quickly. Customers will experience vendor hate to a high degree. But, RH is based on open source. A replacement, open source friendly, can fork RHEL at any time.

Re: IBM acquires Red Hat

#10

Post by OddMerlin » Sun, Oct 28, 2018, 6:23 PM UTC

This is terrible news. I hope its not true.