- July 2019 - IBM
- December 2018 - Google
- October 2018 - Cisco, Google, or Oracle
- October 2018 - IBM
- July 2018 - Google or Microsoft
- March 2018 - Google
- February and March 2014 - Microsoft
- August 2010 - SAP
- May 2009 - IBM
- March 2009 - Oracle
- October 2006 - Oracle
- May 2005 - Microsoft
- January 2002 - AOL
"The firm thinks Google could circle back and make another offer for Red Hat now that Google Cloud is under new management," says business news site Seeking Alpha.
If the breakup fee is not too onerous, Red Hat might be wooed away by Cisco Systems Inc., Google, or Oracle Corp Moskowitz said.
For real this time.
Yet takeover speculation has continued, with recent rumors suggesting Alphabet should be interested as it builds out its cloud business. Any interest could start a bidding war, with other tech giants including Microsoft perhaps becoming interested.
A top executive for the cloud behemoth tells Bloomberg News that Google is "constantly on the lookout for a major acquisition."
This wasn’t so much a rumor as a suggestion.
…Microsoft is an enterprise software company that hopes to transition its strength in that segment into the cloud-and-mobile era. And for Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella, who will orchestrate that transition, an acquisition of Red Hat would be a bold stroke.
Rumors swirled once again this week regarding a possible takeover of Red Hat, this time by SAP, but a number of industry observers said Thursday that the prospect is unlikely at best… Still, one must consider the nature of those purchases, Reed said. "It’s not about compiling a stack, it’s about [capitalizing on] emerging trends."
Jefferies & Co. analyst Katherine Egbert thinks IBM will buy Red Hat. This may be related to the March 2009 Oracle rumor.
We believe it’s inevitable that Red Hat will be subsumed into a larger entity, probably IBM, given the strategic importance of RHEL with the data center.
Jefferies & Co. analyst Katherine Egbert thinks Oracle will buy Red Hat. This may be related to the May 2009 IBM rumor.
…research note that "it would make sense" for Oracle to own Red Hat.
If Red Hat’s stock continues to falter, the company could become increasingly vulnerable to a takeover. Oracle executives refused Wednesday to say if they might be interested in buying Red Hat.
Microsoft could see Red Hat’s acquisition as a nice way to undermine IBM, but might not consider that a sufficient reason to do it.
AOL has already touted Linux in web appliances and appreciates that a box giving access to AOL content and instant messaging doesn’t need to be a Wintel PC. The trouble is, buying RedHat is the most convoluted and most expensive way of buying such an alternative to Wintel.
(c) by Mark McKinstry This is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You should have received a copy of the license along with this work. If not, see <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>.