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In a May 17, 2019 interview, Red Hat’s then-CEO Jim Whitehurst said IBM’s planned acquisition was a major vote of confidence in open source—but argued Red Hat had to remain independent and neutral to work credibly across IBM, Microsoft, Amazon and Google. He also described Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu as serving overlapping but distinct enterprise roles. His remarks came before the deal closed, so they describe expectations at the time, not a post-merger assessment.
What did Jim Whitehurst say about IBM buying Red Hat?
Whitehurst framed IBM’s proposed purchase as an endorsement of open source and a chance to accelerate Red Hat’s work. In the interview, he said: “This is really IBM betting its future on open.” The deal was still under regulatory review when Christine Hall’s interview appeared on May 17, 2019; Whitehurst was describing what he expected from the combination, not reporting on an already integrated company. Read the interview at Data Center Knowledge.
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His central condition was that Red Hat retain enough independence to serve customers across competing platforms. “To be a successful infrastructure software vendor you have to be neutral and agnostic,” he said. In his view, Red Hat needed to maintain credibility with Microsoft, Amazon and Google as well as IBM. That concern was about Red Hat’s role as a cross-platform infrastructure provider: customers should be able to use its software without feeling that it was simply an instrument for IBM’s cloud or other products.
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Whitehurst characterized customer reactions as mixed but generally cautiously optimistic. He said customers wanted to understand what practical value the companies could deliver together. That is his account of the conversations, not the result of an independently conducted customer survey.
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When did IBM complete the acquisition, and on what terms?
IBM announced completion on July 9, 2019, after the interview. Its completion notice reported cash consideration of $190 per share and approximately $34 billion in total equity value. The October 2018 announcement had described the transaction’s approximate enterprise value as $34 billion; those are distinct valuation labels, so the announcement’s enterprise-value figure should not be confused with the completion notice’s equity-value description. IBM’s completion announcement records the closing and terms. The original joint announcement described the proposed transaction and Whitehurst’s view of open source: IBM and Red Hat’s October 2018 announcement.
In that earlier announcement, Whitehurst, then Red Hat President and CEO, said: “Open source is the default choice for modern IT solutions, and I’m incredibly proud of the role Red Hat has played in making that a reality in the enterprise,” The statement reflects his position when the acquisition was announced, rather than a later evaluation of its results.
How did Whitehurst compare Red Hat with SUSE and Ubuntu?
Whitehurst described Red Hat and SUSE as competitors in neighboring parts of the enterprise Linux landscape, but with differentiated roles. He identified Amazon Linux as a major competitor and said Ubuntu generally served different workloads and offered a different value proposition. These were Whitehurst’s characterizations in 2019—not a neutral head-to-head product test or a current product comparison. The interview gives his account.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesHe explained Red Hat’s enterprise proposition through the work involved in maintaining software for business use: downstream sustaining engineering, lifecycle commitments, binary compatibility and backporting. In practical terms, his argument was that enterprise customers may value a stable, supported platform and fixes carried back to an established software base, rather than prioritizing the newest upstream features. That describes the value proposition he emphasized; it should not be read as a current specification of any distribution’s support terms.
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What did Canonical say about Ubuntu?
Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth offered a counter-position in response to the proposed acquisition in October 2018. He claimed Red Hat customers had selected Ubuntu and that Ubuntu’s enterprise momentum was growing. Those are claims from Ubuntu’s publisher, not independently verified adoption figures or proof of market share. Canonical’s statement provides its perspective.
The available statements do not establish a reliable comparative market-share statistic for Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu. Whitehurst’s competitor assessments and Canonical’s claims about momentum are useful as evidence of how the companies positioned themselves, but they do not settle which distribution had more users or was better for a particular deployment.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What should an enterprise Linux buyer take from the interview?
The interview is useful as a record of the strategic questions raised by IBM’s proposed purchase and of how Red Hat’s CEO described the company’s role. It cannot, by itself, determine which distribution is right for a current deployment. A present-day evaluation should compare the specific workload and platform alongside the support and compatibility requirements that matter to the organization.
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- Workload and platform: Identify the applications, infrastructure and cloud environments the distribution must support.
- Lifecycle and support: Verify the current support period and service commitments directly with the distribution provider.
- Compatibility and maintenance: Determine whether the organization needs binary compatibility with an existing base and backported fixes.
- Operating model: Consider how the choice fits the organization’s cloud strategy and its need to operate across providers.
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