RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — IBM says it will acquire North Carolina-based open-source software company Red Hat in a $34 billion stock deal.
The technology and consulting company announced Sunday it would buy all Red Hat shares at $190 apiece — 63 percent above Red Hat's closing price Friday. The two companies said the deal is subject to Red Hat shareholder and regulatory approval and should be completed in the latter half of 2019.
IBM chief executive Ginni Rometty says the acquisition would make IBM the world's No. 1 hybrid cloud provider — that's when companies use a mix of on-site, private and third-party public cloud services.
The two companies said IBM intends to keep Red Hat's headquarters in Raleigh, where Red Hat has more than 2,000 employees. Red Hat has over 12,000 workers worldwide.
