Acquisition of the Week: RedHat and JBoss

That's right, after months of buzz surrounding Oracle and JBoss, Red Hat tips its hat, filled with $350M, to the OSS enterprise service platform vendor... Red Hat will acquire JBoss for approximately $350 million in initial consideration, plus approximately $70 million subject to the achievement of certain future performance metrics. The transaction consideration is composed of approximately 40% in cash and 60% in Red Hat common stock. The acquisition is expected to be completed around the end of Red Hat???s first fiscal quarter (May 2006), subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.

Red Hat apparently made the decision based on its desire to jump full steam into an SOA enabling technology built upon a proven, low-cost OSS enterprise service platform.

According to a FAQ posted on the JBoss site regarding the impending acquisition, the immediate release plans for JBoss products and technologies will be unchanged by the Red Hat acquisition. Once the deal is completed, Red Hat will provide technology roadmap and integration plans.

JBoss is commonly distributed by hundreds of ISVs as the low-cost alternative to costly competing commercial platforms such as WebLogic and WebSphere for web-based administrative consoles across a wide variety of products. Whether this will remain true in the future will depend heavily on Red Hat's plans for integration, and whether or not the company will continue to support JBoss as a separate, stand-alone product set. The memory of Fedora and early treatment of the distribution by Red Hat may well leave many wisely treading carefully until Red Hat reveals its "roadmap and integration plans".