IBM today confirmed that it would acquire open source, cloud software business Red Hat for $190 per share in cash, working out to a total value of $34 billion. IBM said the deal has already been approved by the boards of directors of both IBM and Red Hat but is still subject to Red Hat shareholder and regulatory approvals. If all goes as planned, the acquisition is expected to close in the latter half of 2019.
The deal is all about IBM — which has long continued to rely on its legacy server business — taking a bigger bet on the cloud, and very specifically cloud services that blend on-premises and cloud-based architectures — something that the two companies have already been working on together since May of this year (which now might be looked at as a test drive). Red Hat will be a distinct unit within IBM’s Hybrid Cloud team — which is already a $19 billion business for IBM, the company said — and it will continue to focus on open-source software.
Open source is one of the most important topic in this year’s area of technology. Before this acquisition, Microsoft buy Github for $7.5B and Salesforce buy MuleSoft for $6.5B. The technology of MuleSoft can integrate applications, data and devices in different platform together. In the early of this month, Cloudera brought Hortonworks for $5.2B even Hortonworks is the biggest opponent in the area of cloud computation. Right now, more and more companies realize that the open and mixed cloud service is helpful and important to the further development of the technology companies. On the other side, the technology giants may hinder the development of small company and monopolize the market after they become more powerful.
https://newsroom.ibm.com/2018-10-28-IBM-To-Acquire-Red-Hat-Completely-Changing-The-Cloud-Landscape-And-Becoming-Worlds-1-Hybrid-Cloud-Provider
IBM to buy Red Hat for $34B in cash and debt, taking a bigger leap into hybrid cloud
Hi ykz5087,
Very interesting, your article does bring to subject the lecture on the Internet of Things and the homework assignment we completed a few weeks ago. This move by IBM is something very noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First, Microsoft and Amazon have been killing the cloud services market, and IBM wants more of the pie. Second, we talked about the need for expanding the infrastructure of networks and servers for the IOTs to take off in the future. First off, Amazon really has become a powerhouse in the cloud services market with AWS and is continuing to grow at an accelerated rate. I would like to see in the future that these leaders of the cloud services market come together and work along side each other to provide a greater path to the IOTs that we have fantasized would change everything and make life more efficient and successful. Another point I may add is that by partnering, these companies could bring to market some amazing products that work in combination or complement each other. If Alexa could have the ability to operate with IBM and Microsoft software and applications the uses could be endless. Imagine telling Alexa to send emails on outlook for you, create an excel model, or write an essay on Word while you dictate the language. Imagine a computer made with all of these companies working together, the capabilities possible would be endless. Therein lies the road to the IOTs, tech leaders putting aside the profit margins to collaborate and have more of an impact on society than if they worked alone.