Strong performance by Red Hat is good news for IBM shareholders, making IBM a more competitive player in the Hybrid IT space and significantly increasing the company’s ability to deliver open source software to enterprise in both hybrid and multi-cloud environments. I expect the acquisition to improve IBM’s status. While the price was steep, the company’s ability to grab both market share and the Red Hat community will likely both accelerate revenue and brand equity. All in all, I believe this was smart buy that I think will prove out over the next four quarters following the close of the acquisition.
