Young effectively co-founded the Raleigh, North Carolina-based Linux company in 1995 when his ACC Bookstore acquired Red Hat Software, which Marc Ewing had been developing and distributing from his North Carolina apartment since 1993.
With Young as the company’s CEO and Ewing as CTO, Red Hat was at the forefront of the commercialization of the Linux operating system, and helped to establish the open source software distribution and subscription model that would eventually generate the company revenue of $65.7m in its most recent quarter.
He was also the company’s CEO when it went public in August 1999, raising $84m, and handed over the job of CEO to Matthew Szulik three months later as Red Hat acquired Cygnus Solutions.
Young continued to promote the company and the open source model – not least by wearing the famous Red fedora whenever possible – and remained chairman of the company until April 2002, when Szulik also took on that role.
A month earlier Young had founded Lulu Inc and acquired the assets of online textbook publisher OpenMind Publishing Group, establishing the Lulu.com digital publishing business that Young intends to concentrate on having stepped down from Red Hat’s board of directors.
Young is also the owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, having acquired the then-bankrupt Canadian Football League franchise in October 2003, and set up a five-year plan to turn the franchise around.
