There were rumors over the past few weeks that Linux pioneer Red Hat was shopping around for new office space, including digs in Massachusetts, Austin, and Atlanta, among others. Today, Governor Purdue announced that Red Hat would be staying in Wake County (though she didn’t say Raleigh, specifically).
A month ago when rumors started swirling I predicted Red Hat would stay, posting this on the WRAL story about the office search:
Red Hat would have a hard time finding anyplace with a better quality of life than it has right here. The company’s executives are savvy enough to know that.”
Sure enough, the first thing out of CEO Jim Whitehurst’s mouth when explaining Red Hat’s choosing to stay was this area’s quality of life. Now, Red Hat just needs to vacate the overpriced Centennial Campus space and hang their hat in downtown Raleigh and then they’ll be in business!
From what I heard, downtown Raleigh is too expensive. Somewhere closer to RTP, I think, would be better for them.
I’m actually fairly disappointed they ruled out Durham since I know they were looking at the American Tobacco Campus.
Many Hatters who were commenting on the annoucement’s streaming page said they were not keen on driving to RTP. In that respect, picking Raleigh or Durham would be a better choice.
I think it’s also important for RH to maintain its relationship with NCSU as it provides cheap labor through its CS students. 🙂