Leading Linux distributor Red Hat Inc expects revenue to grow at least 26% to between $99.5m and $101m in the current financial year and anticipates an operating loss of $3m to $4m for the year, with the company breaking even at that level in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter to February 28, the net loss was $41.9m, up from a loss of $24.2m on revenue of $18.6m, down from $21.9m. For the year, the loss was $139.8m, up from a loss of $86.7m on revenue of $78.9m, down from $80.8m. This year's figure includes a $10.3m loss on disposal of discontinued operations.

Matthew Szulik, CEO of the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company, said the company has been hit by the semiconductor slump, which has cut back on the number of new devices and chips that run Linux. The company said its fourth quarter had seen 10 major enterprise customers including AOL, Morgan Stanley, Amazon, Cisco, Dell, Siemens and BP, making large-scale deployments of its open source technologies.

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