http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5064-2002Jan18.html
AOL in Negotiations to Buy Red Hat
By Alec Klein Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, January 19, 2002; Page F1
AOL Time Warner Inc. is in talks to buy Red Hat Inc., a prominent distributor of a computer operating system, an acquisition that would position the media giant to challenge arch rival Microsoft Corp., according to sources familiar with the matter.
Red Hat, a publicly traded firm based in Durham, N.C., sells products and services based on the Linux operating system, the freely available software developed collaboratively by volunteers. Linux is designed for a wide variety of gear, running corporate computer servers and consumer devices such as personal computers, cell phones and video games.
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