Red Hat's revenues rocket

Red Hat has reported big increases in its revenues for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010.

The open source giant's revenue shot up by 18 per cent compared to the same period last year amounting to $194.3 million.

Subscription revenue was also up by 21 per cent equalling $164.4 million..

Jim Whitehurst, president and chief executive officer of Red Hat, said in a statement: "Continued solid execution drove another quarter of strong results for Red Hat."

He added: "Our double digit growth in the current economic environment was driven by our compelling value proposition and outstanding service [and] our customer focus has clearly differentiated us from the competition."

It wasn't all so positive though as operating income fell by more than $1 million but this was due to $8.8 million for a litigation settlement.

Read our feature asking whether open source technology has become a victim of its own success here.

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.