IBM to buy Red Hat for USD 34 bn in largest-ever software acquisition

Anca Alexe 29/10/2018 | 07:39

IBM has announced plans to acquire open-source software and technology distributor Red Hat in a deal valued at about USD 34 billion. It would be the largest acquisition of software and the third-biggest tech acquisition in US history, according to CNBC.

According to a joint statement by the companies, IBM will pay cash to buy all shares in Red Hat at USD 190 each.

Red Hat’s software will become a unit of IBM’s Hybrid Cloud division and Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst will join the IBM team.

The only tech deals that have been larger than this have been the USD 67 billion merger between Dell and EMC in 2016 and JDS Uniphase’s USD 41 billion acquisition of optical component supplier SDL in 2000.

Open source has been a hot topic for companies this year. Microsoft acquired GitHub for USD 7.5 billion and Salesforce bought MuleSoft for USD 6.5 billion. Earlier this month, rivals Cloudera and Hortonworks agreed to merge in a USD 5.2 billion deal.

IBM and Red Hat said the deal would enable businesses to do even more work in the cloud, keeping their apps and data portable and secure, no matter which cloud or hybrid technologies they adopt.