Red Hat’s Corporate Credit Rating Raised by Standard & Poor’s

Published on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 14:39 Written by TradersHuddle Staff

RALEIGH, N.C.-( Business Wire )-

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, announced today that Standard & Poor’s Financial Services, LLC (S&P), a subsidiary of The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. and a leading provider of financial market intelligence and foremost source of credit ratings, has upgraded Red Hat, Inc.’s credit rating to ‘BBB-’ from ‘BB+.’ S&P cited Red Hat’s strong recurring revenue and consistent earnings growth as the primary motivation behind the upgrade.

“With S&P’s upgrade, Red Hat is now considered Investment Grade”, said Charlie Peters, CFO of Red Hat. “This rating is indicative of the financial strength of our company, the consistency of our performance and will give the company better access to the debt capital markets, at lower cost. We are pleased with this upgrade.”

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About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions and an S&P 500 company, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with more than 70 offices spanning the globe. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with cloud, virtualization, management, storage and service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and JBoss Enterprise Middleware. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. 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 delays or reductions in information technology spending; the effects of industry consolidation; the ability of the Company to compete effectively; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations; fluctuations in exchange rates; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (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 to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, including events in Japan. 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.

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Media Contact:Red Hat Inc.Leigh Day, 919-754-4369lday@redhat.comorInvestor Relations:Tom McCallum, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.