Red Hat, Inc. Announces IPO

Durham, NC—June 4, 1999—Red Hat, Inc. announced today that it has filed a registration statement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for the initial public offering of its Common Stock.

It is expected that all of the stock will be sold by the Company. Goldman, Sachs & Co. will act as lead underwriter of the offering. Other underwriters include Thomas Weisel Partners LLC and E*TRADE Securities, Inc.

Red Hat is a leading developer and provider of open source software and services, including the Red Hat Linux operating system. Red Hat's Web site, redhat.com, is a leading online source of information and news about open source software and one of the largest online communities of open source software users and developers.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any State in qualification under the securities laws of any such State.

A copy of the preliminary prospectus, when available, may be obtained from the office of Goldman, Sachs & Co., 85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004.

To the open source software community,

Red Hat has filed a registration statement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for the initial public offering of our common stock. The registration statement will be available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov in the next few days.

Our lead underwriter is Goldman, Sachs & Co. (http://www.gs.com). The other underwriters are Thomas Weisel Partners LLC and E*TRADE Securities, Inc. (http://etrade.com).

Our offering will be made by means of a written prospectus, the form of which is contained within the registration statement. Copies of the preliminary prospectus, when available, may be obtained from the underwriters.

In accordance with SEC regulations, no further information is available at this time and we are not able to comment further.

Thank you.

Cheers,

Bob Young
CEO, Red Hat Inc.