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November 15, 1999

Red Hat acquires Cygnus
LWN talked briefly today with Red Hat's Donnie Barnes (see picture) about the announced acquisition of Cygnus Solutions. Now that the deal has actually been signed, they are able to talk about it...
Red Hat sees Cygnus as being an outstanding match. Cygnus has a great deal of expertise in areas that Red Hat does not - things like compilers, embedded systems, and so on. By bringing in Cygnus, Red Hat is able to fill out its own expertise quickly. And yes, Red Hat is planning to enlarge its presence in the embedded arena; Cygnus will give them a huge start in that direction.
While there may be minor changes in Cygnus as the two companies come together, they do not envision large changes. The fate of the Cygnus name has not been decided. Michael Tiemann is expected to remain with the company and have a big role.
Should people be worried about Red Hat acquiring so much of the compiler and libc teams? In the end, according to Donnie, it remains open source software. Red Hat remains committed to open source, and, in the end, there is only so much that they can do to it. Nobody need worry about the compiler.
LWN asked about Bob Young handing off the CEO title. Donnie says that the trend for some time has been for President (and now CEO) Matthew Szulik to take on more of the day-to-day operations of the company. Bob Young will continue to look at the longer term, and to travel around and represent the company to the world as a whole. He is their "gorgeous spokesmodel." About all that has changed now is the titles on the business cards...