Red Hat and HP Announce World-wide Sales Initiative

E-Commerce Sales and Channel Alliance to Boost Availability of HP's Leading OpenMail System and Red Hat's Open Source Solutions to Enterprise Environments

Research Triangle Park, N.C., and Palo Alto, Calif., Dec. 14, 1999

Red Hat®, Inc. (NASDAQ:RHAT), the leading provider of open source solutions, and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP) today announced an alliance aimed at expanding sales of their solutions in three ways:

"Messaging, collaboration and e-mail systems are a fast-growing, vital part of today's Internet-enabled business," said Teresa Spangler, business unit manager, sales, Red Hat, Inc. "We expect our alliance with HP to boost sales of HP's OpenMail via our portal, while delivering HP's channel the expertise and solutions needed to expand their businesses and capitalize on both the Internet and open source market opportunities."

"OpenMail on Red Hat Linux has been a dream come true for us," said Jeff Mays, network manager at First American Network, Inc. "In my opinion, the administration, flexibility, speed and stability of this product is unmatched. I can go home every night and sleep easy, knowing that Red Hat Linux and OpenMail will be running smoothly with no problems at all."

"We're simply thrilled by the customer feedback on OpenMail for Linux," said Eric Buatois, general manager of HP's Communications Industry Business Unit. "We've seen tens of thousands of downloads, and a surprising number of those companies already made purchasing decisions, even before the final Linux version was available."

Rolling Out Red Hat's Channel Program

This agreement with HP is the first alliance under Red Hat's newly redesigned reseller program and channel initiative, which tailors Red Hat's powerful, industry-leading open source expertise and solutions for today's VARs, system integrators, system builders and custom application providers. The Red Hat Reseller Program includes Red Hat Reseller Starter Kits --- the only comprehensive channel solution designed to give resellers the pricing, product, training and support needed to easily jump into fast-growing Linux and open source opportunities.

Open Source Momentum

International Data Corp. (IDC) research states that Linux was the fastest-growing server operating environment in 1998, growing more than 190 percent in that year alone and capturing more than 15.8 percent of the 4.4 million unit revenue shipment server operating systems market segment. Additionally, IDC states that Red Hat Linux is by far the most popular distribution, preferred by 68.7 percent of U.S. Linux users.

Red Hat's numerous alliances with industry leaders and the demand for Linux-based applications has created open source support from many of the industry's leading software and hardware manufacturers, including Compaq®, Computer Associates, Corel, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Netscape, Novell, Oracle® and SAP®.

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services for business and home -- is focused on capitalizing on the opportunities of the Internet and the proliferation of electronic services.

HP plans to launch Agilent Technologies as an independent company by mid-calendar 2000. Agilent consists of HP's test and measurement, semiconductor products, chemical analysis and healthcare solutions businesses, and has leading positions in multiple market segments.

HP has 83,200 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $42.4 billion in its 1999 fiscal year. Information about HP, its products and the company's Year 2000 program can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Founded in 1994, Red Hat (NASDAQ:RHAT) is a market leader in open source operating system (OS) software, services and information. Along with its award-winning open source Red Hat Linux OS, Red Hat offers a full line of services, including telephone support, on-site consulting, developer training, certification programs and priority access updates, making Red Hat a leading resource for knowledgeable, innovative, mission-critical open source solutions.

Red Hat shares all of its software innovations freely with the open source community under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The Official Red Hat Linux OS and related services are available directly from the company and through its partner, distributor and reseller programs, which include top PC and server manufacturers such as Compaq, Dell, Gateway, IBM, Hewlett-Packard Company and Silicon Graphics.

Red Hat and the Official Red Hat Linux OS have received industry praise. Recent accolades include: Red Herring's Top 100 Companies of the Electronic Economy, Upside's Hot 100 Companies, Network World's 10 Companies to Watch, Federal Computer Week's Government Best Buy, Software Development's Jolt Award and InfoWorld's Product of the Year for three years in a row. Red Hat was also voted a "LinuxWorld Favorite" by the attendees of the two most recent LinuxWorld Expos, winning Best Server Distribution at the August show.

Red Hat is based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and has offices worldwide. Visit Red Hat on the Web at http://www.redhat.com. For investor inquiries, contact Lippert/Heilshorn at (212) 838-3777.

  1. OpenMail is HP's strategic business messaging and collaboration solution for Linux and UNIX® systems, based on Internet standards. Its most notable feature is the way that it supports desktops running the Microsoft® Outlook application. No other non-Microsoft server supports the richness of Outlook as deeply as OpenMail, including support for calendaring, wide-area scheduling, public folders and delegation. OpenMail has an installed base of 15 million seats, with representation in 60 percent of the Fortune 1000. OpenMail is the No. 3 business-messaging product, in terms of Fortune 500 installed base, according to respected industry consultants Creative Networks, Inc.

    More information is available at http://www.hp.com/go/openmail.

     

  2. e-services -- HP envisions a world in which people and businesses derive new value from the Internet by moving beyond Web-based access to information to a world in which a rich array of nimble, modular electronic services, e-services, are accessible by virtually anyone and any device. HP has been working to solve the technical challenges that such a world presents -- inventing the devices and technologies that provide access, building the back-end systems that support the billions of Internet transactions generated, and developing the software that ensures information always is protected. The steward of distributed open systems, HP understands how to build this new open-services marketplace and will lead this next logical evolution of the Net, working closely with world-class partners.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.

RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Microsoft is a U.S. registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.

Netscape is a U.S. trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation, Redwood City, California.

Forward-looking Statements

Forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release that are not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding current or future financial performance, management's plans and objectives for future operations, product plans and performance, management's assessment of market factors, and statements regarding the strategy and plans of Red Hat and its strategic partners, constitute forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks associated with Red Hat's dependence upon an open source business model, management of growth, reliance upon strategic relationships, expansion of Red Hat's business focus and operations to offer increased and enhanced services, the possibility of undetected software errors, the enforceability of the GNU General Public License and other licenses under which Red Hat's products are developed and licensed, the scarcity of Linux-based applications, the ability to attract and retain enterprise customers, and in Red Hat's industry specifically, the risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures, the viability of the Internet, year 2000 compliance efforts of Red Hat and of third parties on which Red Hat depends, and other risks detailed in Red Hat's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be accessed through the SEC's web site at http://www.sec.gov.

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