RHEL pusher Paul Cormier appointed CEO to lead Red Hat into the IBM era
(2020/04/06)
- Reference: 1586184177
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/06/red_hat_ceo_paul_cormier/
- Source link:
Long-serving Red Hatter Paul Cormier [1]has been named president and chief exec as his predecessor, Jim Whitehurst, sets off for fields Big and Blue.
Cormier is very much a Red Hat insider, having joined in 2001 and overseen the addition of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to the company's line-up. He is also credited with pioneering the subscription model that shunted the firms and its wares into boardrooms.
The CEO position had been vacated by Whitehurst, who was [2]due to take up duties as IBM president today, 6 April. Arvind Krishna is also set to commence his tenure as Big Blue's CEO today following January's shenanigans, which saw former boss Virginia Rometty [3]shown the retirement door (by the end of this year, at least).
Whitehurst's tenure at Red Hat saw the company's revenues grow from $500m to almost $3bn before IBM swooped in with an [4]eye-popping $34bn deal to acquire the open sourcer in 2018. Whitehurst then became a veep at IBM.
Cormier, [5]who described RHEL as "by far the most successful thing I ever have or ever will work on", has his work cut out as Red Hat's business is integrated with IBM's. Research, sponsored by Red Hat itself, showed the company [6]enjoyed a substantial share of the worldwide server operating system market ahead of the IBM acquisition. Buddying up with Microsoft will have done no harm to those figures, despite IBM's well-documented struggles to keep its own cloud relevant.
*David Attenborough voice* And here we have, in the wild, a rare glimpse... of what may be... a positive IBM quarter [7]READ MORE
Heaping praise on new IBM boss Krishna, whom Cormier insisted was "committed to keeping Red Hat Red Hat", the new Red Hat CEO added, perhaps ominously, that "IBM knows that the best way for us to continue to lead the industry is to allow us to stay on our mission while helping us scale."
Pinned to the famous fedora are IBM's hopes that Cormier and Red Hat will lead the company into a bright, hybrid cloud future. The appointment of an insider is an indicator that the formula is not about to be dramatically tinkered with. ®
Sponsored: [8]Legacy Modernization: Finding Your Way With Low-Code
[1] https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-names-paul-cormier-president-and-chief-executive-officer
[2] https://newsroom.ibm.com/2020-01-30-Arvind-Krishna-Elected-IBM-Chief-Executive-Officer
[3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/30/ibm_replaces_ceo_ginni_rometty/
[4] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/28/ibm_redhat_acquisition/
[5] https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/get-know-red-hat-president-and-ceo-paul-cormier
[6] https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hat-leading-enterprise-linux-server-market
[7] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/22/ibm_fy2019/
[8] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8553/legacy-modernization-finding-your-way-with-low-code?td=wptl1936
Cormier is very much a Red Hat insider, having joined in 2001 and overseen the addition of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to the company's line-up. He is also credited with pioneering the subscription model that shunted the firms and its wares into boardrooms.
The CEO position had been vacated by Whitehurst, who was [2]due to take up duties as IBM president today, 6 April. Arvind Krishna is also set to commence his tenure as Big Blue's CEO today following January's shenanigans, which saw former boss Virginia Rometty [3]shown the retirement door (by the end of this year, at least).
Whitehurst's tenure at Red Hat saw the company's revenues grow from $500m to almost $3bn before IBM swooped in with an [4]eye-popping $34bn deal to acquire the open sourcer in 2018. Whitehurst then became a veep at IBM.
Cormier, [5]who described RHEL as "by far the most successful thing I ever have or ever will work on", has his work cut out as Red Hat's business is integrated with IBM's. Research, sponsored by Red Hat itself, showed the company [6]enjoyed a substantial share of the worldwide server operating system market ahead of the IBM acquisition. Buddying up with Microsoft will have done no harm to those figures, despite IBM's well-documented struggles to keep its own cloud relevant.
*David Attenborough voice* And here we have, in the wild, a rare glimpse... of what may be... a positive IBM quarter [7]READ MORE
Heaping praise on new IBM boss Krishna, whom Cormier insisted was "committed to keeping Red Hat Red Hat", the new Red Hat CEO added, perhaps ominously, that "IBM knows that the best way for us to continue to lead the industry is to allow us to stay on our mission while helping us scale."
Pinned to the famous fedora are IBM's hopes that Cormier and Red Hat will lead the company into a bright, hybrid cloud future. The appointment of an insider is an indicator that the formula is not about to be dramatically tinkered with. ®
Sponsored: [8]Legacy Modernization: Finding Your Way With Low-Code
[1] https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-names-paul-cormier-president-and-chief-executive-officer
[2] https://newsroom.ibm.com/2020-01-30-Arvind-Krishna-Elected-IBM-Chief-Executive-Officer
[3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/30/ibm_replaces_ceo_ginni_rometty/
[4] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/28/ibm_redhat_acquisition/
[5] https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/get-know-red-hat-president-and-ceo-paul-cormier
[6] https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hat-leading-enterprise-linux-server-market
[7] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/22/ibm_fy2019/
[8] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8553/legacy-modernization-finding-your-way-with-low-code?td=wptl1936
Inevitably...
trevorde
"Resource Actions" in about 18 months as the expected synergies [insert other marketing BS here] fail to materialise. However, CEO still gets massive bonus and a new helicopter.
Reverse Takeover...
Anonymous Coward
Someone within IBM and most likely in the know on some stuff ...
This person indicated that Ginny was out and that the folks from RedHat will move up and start to take over the C level spots and their directs.
Its a good way to get new blood into the top levels of the company in order to effect change.
I told said person that I'll believe it when I see it.
Looks like I was told the truth.
Posted Anon for the obvious reasons. Could have said something earlier, but obviously had I done that... then my sources won't talk to me. ;-)
Heaping praise on new IBM boss Krishna, whom Cormier insisted was "committed to keeping Red Hat Red Hat", the new Red Hat CEO added, perhaps ominously, that "IBM knows that the best way for us to continue to lead the industry is to allow us to stay on our mission while helping us scale."
"And we will now unveil our new company branding. Let me introduce... Big Blue Hat!"