INDUSTRY

Red Hat said today quarterly profit more than doubled on the back of strong subscription sales from corporate customers, "even as we built out our infrastructure through investments in headcount and systems," Chief Financial Officer Charlie Peters said in a statement. Red Hat's net profit rose to $28.7 million, or 13 cents per diluted share, in the fourth quarter ended February 28 versus $13.4 million or 6 cents per share a year earlier. Fourth-quarter sales totaled $78.7 million versus $57.5 million last year. The company called the year's performance strong. "This past year's results affirmed our ability to scale for growth," Peters said. "We are in the early days of a very large global market, and we are driven to avoid complacency as we enter fiscal 2007," said Chief Executive Matthew Szulik. Analysts, on average, forecast fourth-quarter earnings per share of 12 cents on revenue of $78.4 million, according to Reuters Estimates. Red Hat provides update and support services for its version of Linux, which can be copied and modified freely, unlike proprietary software such as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.