Linux vendor Red Hat has announced the acquisition of a professional consulting firm in an all stock deal valued at around $47 million.

Planning Technologies has more than 200 professional engineers and consultants and specialises in infrastructure consulting. Its main expertise is in helping its clients, which include AT&T, Delta Airlines and a variety of government agencies, develop, deploy and manage network architectures.

The acquisition beefs up Red Hat's ability to offer a full range of global services alongside a distribution of Linux that can run on anything from a handheld to a mainframe. It also gives Red Hat an opportunity to present Linux as a credible and well supported network operating system to Planning Technologies' impressive client base.

Matthew Szulik, Red Hat president and chief executive, said the acquisition "delivers customers the front end professional consulting services needed to make informed buying and deployment decisions about their network infrastructure." ®

External links

Red Hat's press release (http://www.redhat.com/about/presscenter/2001/press_planning.html)

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