redhat.com Unveils Affiliate Program for Small- to Medium-sized Web Sites

RALEIGH, N.C -

Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ:RHAT), today unveiled its Affiliate Program-a partnership opportunity that lets small- to mid-sized businesses receive two cents for every click-through to redhat.com.

Through the Affiliate Program, owners of smaller Web sites designed for the open source community can host Red Hat banners and buttons on their sites. Red Hat will leverage technology from performance marketing leader Be-Free, Inc. (Nasdaq:BFRE), to develop and manage the program and to compensate affiliates for each click-through.

"redhat.com has become one of the most popular stops on the Web for open source information and solutions," said Lisa Sullivan, director of marketing at Red Hat. "The affiliate program delivers the vast resources of Red Hat's market and technology leadership to affiliate partner's viewers. And instead of competing for viewers, we can share them and stimulate additional online revenue for both Red Hat and affiliates."

redhat.com attracts the largest global audience of open source developers and users and is the premier portal for a wide variety of open source software and information solutions. The redhat.com Marketplace delivers a single, comprehensive Web destination to learn about and purchase products for open source Internet computing initiatives. Earlier this year, redhat.com added several new services, including: "What can Red Hat do for Me," which delivers users a made-to-order report featuring the information, products and services right for that customer's needs, and "Success Stories," which details the business need, deployment and cost savings of Red Hat Linux for Internet Infrastructure solutions.

According to International Data Corp. (IDC) research, 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.

For more information about the Red Hat Affiliate Program or to fill out an application to become an affiliate, please visit http://www.redhat.com/affiliates. For additional inquiries, please email affiliates@redhat.com. Media inquiries can be directed to Brian Willinsky at Schwartz Communications, (781) 684-0770 or redhat@schwartz-pr.com.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

  • About Red Hat
  • Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As the connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. Learn more at http://www.redhat.com.



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