RALEIGH – Red Hat’s first quarter was as sizzling as the coming North Carolina summer as the open source and Linux tech firm beat Wall Street estimates for earnings and revenue in its most recent quarter. The Hatters’ CFO noted that they “doubled the number of deals over $5 million” and scored a big cloud deal worth $15 million.
Revenue topped Street expectations at $934 million, some $2.4 million more than forecast by FactSet.
And earnings after one-time adjustments came in at $1, higher than FactSet’s analysts panel target of 87 cents.
Shares traded up slightly after the news was announced.
The news comes as the Raleigh-based firm reportedly moves closer to becoming part of IBM. A $34 billion deal announced last October is getting close to winning regulatory approval in the European Union as well as Brazil, according to reports. The U.S. Justice Department already has approved the merger.
Neither Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) nor IBM (NYSE: IBM) have had much to say about the regulatory review process other than IBM saying approval is expected in the second half of this year.
RHT shares closed at $188.30 Thursday, just off a recent high of $189.40. IBM will pay $190 a share in cash assuming the deal is approved.
The merger apparently didn’t have an impact on Red Hat’s quarterly performance ending May 31 as revenue climbed 15 percent year-over-year to $934 million. It’s even higher in percentage – 18 percent – in constant currency, which takes into consideration changes in dollar value.
Subscription revenue surged to $815 million, up 15 percent.
Red Hat executives did not have a conference call with analysts or talk with the media due to the ongoing merger review. They also did not offer financial guidance.
Report: European Union regulators expected to OK IBM-Red Hat deal
“We continue to unlock the potential of developers and enterprises, enabling our customers to succeed in building next generation IT infrastructure and applications,” Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat’s CEO, said in a statement.
“Customer interest in Red Hat technologies is robust, evidenced by a record attendance of nearly 9,000 attendees at Red Hat Summit [in Boston], our marquee user event. At the event, we announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and OpenShift 4, building on our track record of delivering innovation that creates business value for our customers. Customer excitement was evident at the event and further reflected in the quarter, where we added more than 90 new OpenShift customers.”
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Added Red Hat CFO Eric Shander:
“The first quarter was a strong start to FY20, with double digit growth across a number of our financial metrics, including 15 percent total revenue growth year-over-year in U.S. dollars, or 18 percent measured in constant currency; and 24 percent in U. S. dollars, or 29 percent in constant currency, growth year-over-year in our Application Development-related and other emerging technology revenue.
“Our large deal momentum remained strong, as we doubled the number of deals over $5 million and saw 15 percent growth in the number of deals over $1 million from the year-ago quarter. Many of these deals contained emerging technologies, including an OpenStack deal for over $5 million and our largest ever storage and hyperconverged deal for over $15 million. The breadth of our success demonstrates that customers can realize significant value across our product portfolio.”
