Last week, I met up with Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat's CEO. He gave a very fluent presentation to a group of journalists that ran through Red Hat's business model, and explained why – unsurprisingly – he was optimistic about his company's future growth.
Somewhat unkindly, I reminded him of an interview he gave a couple of years ago, in which he said:
When I look at the quality of our existing technology, and the incredible brand that we have and the markets we play in, we should be a $5 billion company or more. If you just look at operating systems and middleware--that's nearly a $100 billion business. We're a $500 million business. We have barely scratched the surface.
Well, today Red Hat is a $750 million business according to Whitehurst. But when, I wanted to know, would Red Hat reach that $5 billion turnover – and why was it taking so long?
Pretty interesting analysis, although it rapidly strays from the original thesis into a discussion of the relative local benefits of proprietary vs open source software companies.
"It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God but to create him." -Arthur C. Clarke