In the first quarter of its current fiscal year, which ended in May, US Linux distributor Red Hat increased its revenue by 15% to $363 million, continuing the positive trend of the previous quarters. Net income grew 8% year-over-year to $40 million. Revenue from software subscriptions alone rose 16% to $316 million, according to a press release.

“During the first quarter, we delivered solid growth in total revenue and subscription revenue" said Red Hat CFO Charlie Peters, who pointed out the company's ramping up of spending on R&D for "cloud management, Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform and Red Hat’s OpenShift platform-as-a-service technologies". Red Hat's full report for the first quarter also notes the company has $1.22 billion in cash equivalents and investments after it repurchased $179 million (approximately 3.6 million shares) of stock. Investors seem pleased with the results – in New York, Red Hat stock was up 3% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

(djwm)