IBM expands in the cloud

Article Excerpt

IBM $124.84 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 912.8 million; Market cap: $111.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.1%; www.ibm.com) has now agreed to acquire Red Hat Inc. (New York symbol RHT) for $34 billion. This is the biggest acquisition in IBM’s history. Red Hat is a leading developer of software that powers cloud-based computing systems. Red Hat’s programs use the open-source Linux operating system. That lets it adapt its software to work on a wide variety of computer hardware and cloud systems. IBM expects the new operations will add $3.2 billion to its annual revenue of $80.4 billion. Red Hat will continue to operate as a separate business, so there’s little opportunity to cut jobs and other costs. Even so, Red Hat should generate $1 billion of free cash flow (regular cash flow less capital expenditures) in its first year. The purchase will make IBM the largest provider of software for hybrid cloud systems, which combine company-owned servers with public cloud services…