RHAT Red Hat

Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, today announced that FORTUNE ranked Red Hat number 29 in the magazine's 16th annual 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list and the company placed second in Business 2.0's 100 Fastest-Growing Technology Companies. With a minority of technology companies included in FORTUNE's rankings and the company's high placement in Business 2.0's list, Red Hat's growth is proof that the demand for open source is growing while other traditional models are stagnant or declining. "We are thrilled to have both FORTUNE and Business 2.0 recognize Red Hat for our growth and performance in the market and industry," said Charlie Peters, CFO, Red Hat. "Our goal is to stay true to open source values, create extraordinary value and provide service worthy of the world's largest companies." FORTUNE's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list this year featured a wide array of corporate America companies with the strongest three-year sales, profit and stock growth. To compute the rankings, FORTUNE used data from Zacks Investment Research and gave equal weight to three factors: profit and sales growth (for three years through the first quarter of 2006) and three-year total return (through June). To find the 100 Fastest-Growing Technology Companies, Business 2.0 magazine screened a universe of more than 2,000 tech companies that have been publicly traded on a U.S. stock exchange for at least three years, have a market capitalization of at least $50 million and have had a positive operating cash flow over the past 12 months. Zacks Investment Research of Chicago ranked the resulting list using four financial criteria: growth in revenue, profit, operating cash flow during the past three years and 12-month stock return as of December 31, 2005. Cash flow growth counts for 40 percent of a company's ranking. Each of the other criteria counts for 20 percent. For more information, please visit http://www.redhat.com. About Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. The most trusted name in open source, CIOs and other senior-level IT executives have ranked Red Hat as the industry's most valued vendor for two consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high-quality, low-cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides an operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, along with applications, management, and middleware solutions, including JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat is accelerating the shift to service-oriented architectures and enabling the next generation of web-enabled applications running on a low-cost, secure open source platform. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with a focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com Forward Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute �forward-looking statements� within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to the integration of acquisitions; the ability of the Company to effectively compete; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and potential for infringement or breach of license claims regarding third party intellectual property; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations; adverse results in litigation; the dependence on key personnel as well as other factors contained in in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions �Risk Factors� and �Management�s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations�. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT and JBOSS are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the US and other countries. Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, today announced that FORTUNE ranked Red Hat number 29 in the magazine's 16th annual 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list and the company placed second in Business 2.0's 100 Fastest-Growing Technology Companies. With a minority of technology companies included in FORTUNE's rankings and the company's high placement in Business 2.0's list, Red Hat's growth is proof that the demand for open source is growing while other traditional models are stagnant or declining. "We are thrilled to have both FORTUNE and Business 2.0 recognize Red Hat for our growth and performance in the market and industry," said Charlie Peters, CFO, Red Hat. "Our goal is to stay true to open source values, create extraordinary value and provide service worthy of the world's largest companies." FORTUNE's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list this year featured a wide array of corporate America companies with the strongest three-year sales, profit and stock growth. To compute the rankings, FORTUNE used data from Zacks Investment Research and gave equal weight to three factors: profit and sales growth (for three years through the first quarter of 2006) and three-year total return (through June). To find the 100 Fastest-Growing Technology Companies, Business 2.0 magazine screened a universe of more than 2,000 tech companies that have been publicly traded on a U.S. stock exchange for at least three years, have a market capitalization of at least $50 million and have had a positive operating cash flow over the past 12 months. Zacks Investment Research of Chicago ranked the resulting list using four financial criteria: growth in revenue, profit, operating cash flow during the past three years and 12-month stock return as of December 31, 2005. Cash flow growth counts for 40 percent of a company's ranking. Each of the other criteria counts for 20 percent. For more information, please visit http://www.redhat.com. About Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. The most trusted name in open source, CIOs and other senior-level IT executives have ranked Red Hat as the industry's most valued vendor for two consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high-quality, low-cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides an operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, along with applications, management, and middleware solutions, including JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat is accelerating the shift to service-oriented architectures and enabling the next generation of web-enabled applications running on a low-cost, secure open source platform. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with a focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com Forward Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to the integration of acquisitions; the ability of the Company to effectively compete; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and potential for infringement or breach of license claims regarding third party intellectual property; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations; adverse results in litigation; the dependence on key personnel as well as other factors contained in in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT and JBOSS are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the US and other countries.