Last week, Forbes recognized Red Hat on its list of the top 25 fastest-growing technology companies in America. Forbes’ sixth-annual list includes a broad spectrum of companies from biotech to aerospace, and recognizes seven software-related companies. Red Hat made the list this year for the first time and was ranked eleventh overall. Other top names in technology on the list include Google, ranked first overall, and SalesForce.com, ranked second.

The list may be published annually, but the criteria for inclusion is based on a long horizon of performance and the delivery of solid results that reflect hard work over the years. The criteria for Forbes’ list mainly focused on sales growth, profitability, growth outlook and the lack of legal, accounting or corporate governance issues.

From an investor’s perspective (where future results are key), the list also seems to include those companies that the equity analyst community believes are positioned to deliver double-digit earnings growth well into the future. Given our fast, top-line growth, strong EBITDA margins and high cash flow yield, Red Hat is a standout company on Forbes’ survey of over 2,000 public companies. It isn’t every day that a technology company of our size can show the strong results and potential reflected in Red Hat’s recent financial earnings. We’ll be reporting our fourth quarter and FY08 financial earnings at the end of March, so watch for more growth opportunities ahead for Red Hat.