There's lots of holiday cheer to go around in North Carolina this season. Linux leader Red Hat
At the same time, longtime CEO Matt Szulik tipped his fedora in farewell as he handed the CEO and president reins over to former Delta Airlines
Keeping the former Big Cheese involved for a while should ensure a smoother transition, and Whitehurst comes with fine credentials, having led a multibillion-dollar business through hard times, a bankruptcy restructuring, and international expansion.
Szulik said Whitehurst got the job because he understands the open-source mentality of Red Hat better than the other candidates, and he runs four different flavors of Linux on his own home network. He's got a degree in computer science, and he started his career as a software developer.
So Szulik leaves the company in surprisingly appropriate hands. The Whitehurst hire reminds me of when Google
The numbers are all headed in the right direction, and there is a strong management team at the helm. And unlike fellow growth-stock hopeful Hansen Natural, the board is deep and diverse, sharing board members with big names such as Anheuser-Busch and Boston Scientific.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come tells tales of red hats under the tree for many, many years. The Linux revolution is happening as we speak, and Red Hat remains the provider to beat -- as it always was.
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