"While we remain focused on managing discretionary costs and improvingefficiencies, we also continue to invest in growth opportunities in middleware,virtualization and cloud computing," stated Charlie Peters, Executive VicePresident and Chief Financial Officer of Red Hat. "These efforts combined withsolid top line growth contributed to non-GAAP operating income growth of 19%year-over-year and healthy cash flow. In the quarter, we repurchased $47 millionof common stock while strengthening our balance sheet with a 5% sequentialincrease in cash and investments. On a year-over-year basis, we have reduced ourdiluted shares outstanding by approximately 11%." Other highlights include the following:* We announced our JBoss Open Choice strategy, which is intended to address theevolving needs of application developers and the changing market by embracing avariety of programming models, frameworks and languages. Executing on thisstrategy, Red Hat now has application platform solutions for common Javaapplication workloads; from simple web applications, to light and rich Javaapplications, to Java Enterprise Edition (EE) based applications. Our new JBossplatforms support a variety of popular programming models including SpringFramework, Seam and Google Web Toolkit.

* Delivering on Red Hat`s virtualization strategy and roadmap, the companyannounced the beta releases of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization portfolio ofproducts, all of which are integrated with our KVM hypervisor. Included in thebeta release is a new management product for the management of servervirtualization. The Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization portfolio will leverageRed Hat`s broad certified ecosystem and will offer flexibility, operationalchoice and efficiency to customers.Additional information on Red Hat's reported results, including a reconciliationof the non-GAAP adjusted results, are included in the financial tables below. Alive webcast of Red Hat's results will begin at 5:00 pm ET today and can beaccessed by the general public at Red Hat's investor relations website at A replay of the webcast will be available shortlyafter the live event has ended. About Red Hat, Inc.Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered inRaleigh, NC with over 65 offices spanning the globe. CIOs ranked Red Hat as oneof the top vendors delivering value in Enterprise Software for five consecutiveyears in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value survey. Red Hat provideshigh-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red HatEnterprise Linux, together with applications, management and Services OrientedArchitecture (SOA) solutions, including JBoss Enterprise Middleware.

Red Hatalso offers support, training and consulting services to its customersworldwide. Learn more: http:// Forward-Looking StatementsCertain statements contained in this press release may constitute"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private SecuritiesLitigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition to thesefactors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materiallybecause of more general factors including (without limitation) general industryand market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmentaland public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this pressrelease represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release andthese views could change.

However, while the Company may elect to update theseforward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specificallydisclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should notbe relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent tothe date of the press release LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds RED HAT and JBOSS are registeredtrademarks of Red Hat, Inc and its subsidiaries in the US and other countries RED HAT, INC. (adds details from minister) Bonds  |  Japan MARACAY, Venezuela, June 24 (Reuters) - Venezuela hasapproved a bond issue by state oil company PDVSA, but thecompany is still negotiating a $1.5 billion loan with aJapanese bank, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said onWednesday. Sources told Reuters this week that the $3 billion PDVSAbond -- issued in dollars but payable in bolivar currency --would go to the secondary market in the second week of July. "This has already been authorized by the central bank andthe executive," the minister told reporters on the sidelines ofan alternative trade summit without giving any details. Rodriguez said world oil inventories had dropped slightlybut are still very high. He said OPEC hopes for oil prices ashigh as $75 by end of this year.