Open source firm Red Hat has reported revenues of $195.9m for the fourth quarter of 2009, an increase of 21% compared to $166.2m for the same period last year. Subscription revenues rose by 21% to $169.2m from $139.4m.
Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO of Red Hat, said: “With double digit revenue growth and record billings, our fourth quarter capped off a year of solid performance, moving us closer to our milestone revenue goal of a billion dollars.
As we look forward, we believe that we are well positioned at the confluence of several major technology trends in the data center, including cloud computing, virtualisation and middleware.”
The company posted a gross profit of $166.5m compared to $140.27m for the same period last year. Operating income rose to $27.95m from $20.23m, with operating margin of 14.3% in the fourth quarter.
For the quarter ended February 28, 2010, the company reported a net income of $23.4m, an increase of 44% compared to $16.2m in the same period a year ago.
For full year 2009, the company’s revenue rose by 15% to $748m from $652m in 2008. Subscription revenue increased by 18% to $638.7m. Net income was $87.3m or $0.45 per diluted share, compared to $78.7m or $0.39 per diluted share in the prior year.
Charlie Peters, executive vice president and CFO of Red Hat, said: This year has been about consistent execution in the most difficult economic conditions in our lifetime. We managed costs carefully while continuing to invest significantly.
“We added over 350 employees consistently throughout the year, principally in engineering and sales. We invested in sales training, systems and new equipment while holding the line on travel and other discretionary costs.”
