Red Hat revenue up 12 percent

Strong subscription revenue growth.

Open source firm Red Hat posted its second quarter results for 2010 today, showing revenue up year on year by 12 percent.

Total revenue for Q2 was US$183.6m ($211.9m), up from last year's quarter figure of US$156.3m.

Profits increased 37 percent from US$21.1m to US$28.9m. But this was mostly due to what Red Hat called 'a discrete tax benefit' of US$7.3m, so without it profit shows a modest two percent rise.

Subscription revenue increased year on year to US$156.3m, a 15 percent rise.

Red Hat chief financial officer Charlie Peters said: "We're particularly pleased with the growth of the current portion of deferred revenue, combined with the lengthening of our average subscription duration."

Red Hat also repurchased 2.3 million shares of common stock, valued at US$47m.