Red Hat Completes C2Net Aquisition for Approximately $42.7 Million

Research Triangle Park, N.C.—September 13, 2000—Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ: RHAT), the leader in open source Internet infrastructure solutions, completed the acquisition of privately-held C2Net Software, Inc., the developer of the popular Apache-based Stronghold® secure web server. C2Net's Stronghold, which is available for many operating system platforms, is the most popular commercial SSL Web server on the Internet with more than 30 percent of the secure web server market.

The transaction was valued at approximately $42.7 million based on an average closing price of Red Hat's common shares for a seven-day period ended August 16, 2000. Under the terms of the transaction, Red Hat issued 1,992,877 shares of Red Hat common stock in exchange for all of the outstanding securities of Oakland, California-based C2Net. The acquisition has been accounted for as a purchase.

Red Hat continues to broaden its product offerings to provide a single source of complete Internet infrastructure solutions for its enterprise customers. C2Net is the fifth major acquisition for Red Hat in 2000 following the acquisition of: (1) WireSpeed, a leading developer of network and telecommunications software that helps connect a new generation of post-PC and embedded devices to the Internet and secure Web servers like Stronghold; (2) Bluecurve, whose performance management solutions allow organizations to simulate and measure user activity and demands placed on the Internet infrastructure and applications; (3) Hell's Kitchen Systems, Inc. (HKS), a provider of e-commerce payment processing software critical for any company trying to conduct business on the Web; and, (4) Cygnus Solutions, a top provider of a wide variety of software, tools, services and developer support for servers, real-time operating systems (RTOS) and embedded, post-PC platforms.

Open source momentum
International Data Corp. (IDC) research states that paid Linux shipments grew faster than any other server operating system over the past two years, and their preliminary figures for 1999 show Linux shipments hold 24.6 percent of the server operating system market, up from 15.8 in 1998. IDC also states that Red Hat holds 50.2 percent of Linux vendor market share and that Red Hat Linux is by far the most popular distribution, preferred by 68.7 percent of U.S. Linux users.

Research firm Netcraft, Inc. (www.netcraft.com), states that as of May 2000, 36 percent of all public Web sites run on Linux-based operating systems, making Linux the most popular choice for deploying public Web sites. IDC research shows 40 percent of all spending on Linux servers is for Internet related applications, firmly entrenching Linux servers in the Internet infrastructure.

Finally, IDC predicts that by 2002, there will be more than 55 million handheld and notebook-style information appliance devices and that by 2005, shipments of these appliances will exceed shipments of PCs.

Red Hat's numerous alliances with industry leaders and the demand for Linux-based applications has created open source support from many of the industry's leading software and hardware manufacturers, including Dell, Compaq, Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Netscape, Novell, Oracle and SAP.

About C2Net
C2Net is the global provider of Stronghold secure web server software. Stronghold is available for more than 30 platforms, including several versions of Linux and most other common UNIX platforms.

As the first commercial server to support SSL and make its source code available to the development community, C2Net's Stronghold server has been leading the creation and adoption of security standards and protocols in Web-based computing for years. Stronghold was the first SSL Web server to support: 128-bit encryption, HTTP/1.1, SSL client certificates and hardware crypto acceleration. Stronghold 3, the latest version of C2Net's solution, includes administration tools for easy installation, powerful server-side scripting and unlimited virtual hosting on one license.

C2Net's customers include a blue-chip roster of leading Internet e-commerce businesses including Amazon.com, Ameritrade, EarthLink/Mindspring/Netcom, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Online, Network Solutions, USA.net, US Department of Energy, US Federal Courts, and Verio, Inc.

C2Net was founded in 1994 and has offices in Oakland, California and Newbury, England. The Company's revenues increased 46 percent in 1999 to $3.25 million. Additional information and free evaluation copies of Stronghold are available at http://www.c2.net/.

About Red Hat, Inc.
Founded in 1994, Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT) is the leading provider of open source Internet infrastructure solutions, ranging from small, embedded devices to high availability clusters and Web serving. Red Hat applies its technological leadership to create open source solutions for Internet infrastructure and post-PC environments, offers services backed by the best understanding of open source and the most comprehensive resources, delivers the brand of a widely trusted open source leader and corporate partner, and persists in an indelible commitment to the virtues of open source to lead a revolution in the computing industry.

Red Hat, Inc. is based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and has offices worldwide. Red Hat Europe was established in July 1999 with its European headquarters based in Surrey, United Kingdom and offices throughout Europe.

Visit Red Hat on the Web at www.redhat.com. For investor inquiries, contact Lippert/Heilshorn at (212) 838-3777.

Forward-looking statements
Forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release that are not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation, management's plans and objectives for future operations and management's assessment of market factors, constitute forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, product plans and performance, the ability to continue to develop the Linux kernel and other software, reliance upon strategic relationships, Red Hat's dependence upon an open source business model, reliance upon independent third-party Linux developers, management of growth, expansion of Red Hat's business focus and operations, the possibility of undetected software errors, the enforceability of the GNU General Public License and other licenses under which Red Hat's products are developed and licensed, the scarcity of Linux-based applications, the risks of economic downturns generally, and in Red Hat's industry specifically, the risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures, the viability of the Internet, and other risks detailed in Red Hat's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be accessed through the SEC's Web site at http://www.sec.gov.

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