From CNET:
Red Hat said its acquisition of the JBoss open-source Java server software would mean $22 million to $27 million in new revenue from June 2, 2006, when the acquisition was completed, and February 27, 2007, when the Linux seller’s quarter ends. The company’s quarterly report, released Tuesday, indicates that the company will just make that goal.
Who cares? Well, first of all, Red Hat chief Matthew Szulik fired almost 80% of the sales staff in the first quarter after the JBoss acquisition and placed the remaining sales team largely in an inside sales rep role. A good number of people have left JBoss – including Marc Fleury, Rob Beardon (COO), Cary Smith (CFO), Ben Sabrin (VP Sales) just to name a few at the top level. OK, I get it – that makes sense. You get acquired by a large company and it’s expected.
But, fire the sales team? And not only did he fire them, during the firing, he completely lambasted them and insulted the ones remaining – according to inside sources.
What I love about this story is that Red Hat, even among their recent incompetence in dealing with the JBoss acquisition, can’t hardly screw up their momentum. And, this is such a JBoss story. Among all the negative publicity and against all odds – they still somehow pull it off. Good for them.
And what’s Marc’s take on the whole thing? Given that he’s previewing as a House DJ at a local club here in Atlanta tomorrow night, I would bet his reaction would be “I really don’t care” (with some expletives intermixed). And if I made what he made, I wouldn’t either.
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