IBM officially acquires Red Hat for $34 billion -- Linux distros are unaffected

IBM has closed its acquisition of Red Hat following the statement of intent back in October. Following the $34 billion deal, Red Hat will operate as a distinct unit within IBM -- and will be reported as part of IBM's Cloud and Cognitive Software segment.

For IBM, the deal means fully embracing open source as it looks to accelerate its business model within the enterprise. For Red Hat, it means expanding its client base and working with a big player in the enterprise cloud business.

Red Hat CTO Chris Wright says: "We are coming together to build upon a firm foundation that will enable us to accelerate and scale beyond what either Red Hat or IBM could do individually. I firmly believe that our combined presence and reputation in the technology industry, along with a strong demonstration of shared values, will help us accelerate the broader adoption of open source around the world and reshape the technology landscape for generations to come".

In an announcement about the deal, IBM says:

IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Red Hat announced today that they have closed the transaction under which IBM acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Red Hat for $190.00 per share in cash, representing a total equity value of approximately $34 billion.

The acquisition redefines the cloud market for business. Red Hat's open hybrid cloud technologies are now paired with the unmatched scale and depth of IBM's innovation and industry expertise, and sales leadership in more than 175 countries. Together, IBM and Red Hat will accelerate innovation by offering a next-generation hybrid multicloud platform. Based on open source technologies, such as Linux and Kubernetes, the platform will allow businesses to securely deploy, run and manage data and applications on-premises and on private and multiple public clouds.

Seemingly anticipating concerns from the open source community, Linux fans and the Red Hat community, Wright shared an FAQ stressing that little should change:

Will the acquisition change the way Red Hat contributes to upstream projects?
No, Red Hat will continue to contribute to and participate in open source projects as we do today.

Will the work being done on Fedora's CPE (community platform engineering) team realignment be affected?
No, that work is unrelated to the acquisition.

Will the work that Fedora does, including all of the Editions, Spins, and Labs, change as a result of the acquisition?
Fedora's build products will not be affected. All changes will continue to be driven by the Fedora Project.

How will our work in CRI-O (an open container initiative-based implementation of Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface) be affected?
It will not be affected. Our product roadmap will remain independent.

Are Red Hatters still free to work on open source projects outside of Red Hat?
Yes. Red Hat associates can contribute and participate in open source projects outside of Red Hat as they do today.

Will community projects be forced to support specific software or hardware?
No. Any inclusion of software and hardware support will continue to be driven by the community.

Will community projects or Red Hat contributors be forced to use specific technologies?
No.

Will Red Hat continue to support Red Hat-sponsored projects?
Yes, Red Hat will continue to support our current sponsored projects.

Will the logos of Red Hat-sponsored projects change as a result of the IBM acquisition?
No logos of Red Hat-sponsored projects will change as a result of the acquisition.

Will Red Hat remain active in the foundations and organizations in which we currently participate?
Yes, Red Hat's commitment to the foundations and organizations we support will continue.