Q. What is being announced?
On Sept. 18, 2014, Red Hat announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire FeedHenry. The acquisition is subject to certain customary closing conditions.
 
Q. What does FeedHenry do?
FeedHenry provides a cloud-based enterprise mobile application platform that enables customers to design, develop, deploy and manage applications for mobile devices. FeedHenry specializes in extending enterprise systems to mobile devices, incorporating the unique capabilities of mobile devices, the flexibility and scalability of cloud technology, and the security of integrating apps with multiple backend systems.
 
The platform provides mobile-specific services for security, notification and data synchronization. And it enables the mobile developer to build access to corporate data and applications into their mobile applications and to build backend logic that supports their mobile applications – all in a secure, scalable manner.
 
Q. Why is Red Hat interested in offering a mobile platform?
Mobile computing is changing the way enterprises conduct business and engage with their employees, partners, and customers. It is a rapidly growing segment of the information technology market and enterprises are looking for solutions that enable them to extend existing applications to mobile devices and to build new applications that embrace mobile users from the beginning. FeedHenry is a natural fit with Red Hat’s strengths in enterprise middleware and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), allowing our customers to meet their growing mobile requirements.
 
Q. Why FeedHenry?
Enterprises continue to embrace mobile devices and mobile apps (including native, mobile web, and hybrid apps) as a preferred way to engage with employees, partners and customers. As a result the majority of new enterprise application software development includes support for mobile devices. FeedHenry is a leader in cloud-based enterprise mobile application platforms and has deep expertise in meeting the mobile application development needs of enterprises. With FeedHenry, Red Hat will be able to support customers' end-to-end mobile application development, integration and management needs – at enterprise scale.
 
Q. How many people are employed by FeedHenry and where are they located?
FeedHenry has approximately 65 employees worldwide, with primary sites in Waterford and Dublin, Ireland; Staines, England; and Burlington, Mass.
 
Q. What does FeedHenry offer its customers today?
FeedHenry is a leader in offering a cloud-based mobile application platform to global customers in healthcare, transportation, construction, manufacturing and other industries to design, develop, deploy and manage mobile applications for their employees, partners, and customers. FeedHenry has been successful due to its deep expertise in delivering solutions that meet business needs for accelerating mobile app projects, while satisfying IT’s requirements for security and control.
 
Q. What is Red Hat's plan of action with respect to FeedHenry's existing platform?
The FeedHenry platform expands and complements Red Hat’s broad portfolio of application development and integration products and will enable enterprises to build, integrate and manage rich, scalable mobile applications. FeedHenry is an important addition to Red Hat’s JBoss xPaaS strategy for OpenShift, providing a cloud-based platform that supports flexible mobile application development and backend integration to enterprise systems. FeedHenry complements Red Hat’s vision for the future of application development by attracting mobile application development to its OpenStack and OpenShift cloud offerings.
 
Red Hat plans to continue to sell and support FeedHenry’s products. FeedHenry has an engaged and growing customer base, and Red Hat is committed to expanding and innovating to provide customers with high-value solutions.
 
Q. How are FeedHenry’s products different from Red Hat's current offerings?
FeedHenry adds deep and broad mobile capabilities to the Red Hat JBoss Middleware portfolio and OpenShift Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings, enabling enterprises to accelerate their mobile app development and backend integration via private and public clouds, and on-premise. It represents a rapid and immediate expansion of our middleware and PaaS capabilities, consistent with our existing focus.
 
Q. How will this impact the product roadmap for FeedHenry’s Mobile Application Platform?
Together, FeedHenry and Red Hat will continue to focus on making the job of building, launching and managing mobile solutions easier for our enterprise customers. Red Hat is committed to expanding and innovating to provide customers with high-value solutions.
 
Q. What does this mean for FeedHenry’s flexibility in supporting different cloud deployments?
We expect to offer flexible cloud deployments to our customers which will now include greater support and integration for OpenShift and OpenStack.
 
Q. Will Red Hat open source the FeedHenry technology?
Red Hat has long shown its commitment to open-sourcing the technology it acquires. We have no reason to expect a change in this approach.
 
Q. What does this mean for existing FeedHenry customers?
FeedHenry will continue to honor client contracts and provide service and support as required. For the most part, it will be business as usual. The combination of FeedHenry and Red Hat offers industry-leading mobile platform technology, a broad portfolio of enterprise open source software, world-class support and an extended partner network.
 
Q. I’m a FeedHenry customer – who should I call for support?
What we’ve announced today is that FeedHenry and Red Hat have signed a definitive agreement in which Red Hat will acquire FeedHenry, subject to customary closing conditions. Customers should contact FeedHenry for support as they did before the transaction.
 
Q. What does this mean for existing FeedHenry partners?
FeedHenry and Red Hat share a deep commitment to their partners and the belief that partners are vital to our success. Red Hat looks forward to the opportunity to collaborate with FeedHenry’s partners.
 
Q. How does this impact Red Hat partners?
For the Red Hat partner this acquisition would add mobile capabilities to the technology portfolio that they can use to build, sell and implement customer solutions.
 
Q. Where can customers and partners get more information on this news?

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Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver reliable and high-performing Linux, hybrid cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies.

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