Set forth below are certain risks and cautionary statements, which supplement other disclosures in this report. Please carefully consider the following risks and cautionary statements. If any of the following risks occur, our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows could be materially adversely affected.

Moreover, certain statements contained in this report and the documents incorporated by reference in this report, including in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that is not strictly a historical statement (for example, statements regarding current or future financial performance, management’s plans and objectives for future operations, product plans and performance, management’s expectations regarding market risk and market penetration, management’s assessment of market factors or strategies, objectives and plans of Red Hat and its partners). Words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “expects,” “estimates,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” and similar expressions, may also identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of Red Hat’s future performance and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause Red Hat’s actual results to differ materially from those found in the forward-looking statements and from historical trends. These risks and uncertainties include the risks and cautionary statements detailed below and elsewhere in this report as well as in Red Hat’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), copies of which may be accessed through the SEC’s web site at http://www.sec.gov. Readers are urged to carefully review these risks and cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements included in this report represent our views as of the date of this report. We specifically disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the future. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this report.

RISKS RELATED TO BUSINESS UNCERTAINTY

The duration and extent of economic downturns, regional financial instability, and global economic and market conditions generally could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

Economic weakness and uncertainty, tightened credit markets and constrained IT spending from time to time contribute to slowdowns in the technology industry, as well as in the specific customer segments and geographic regions in which we operate, which may result in reduced demand and increased price competition for our offerings. Our operating results in one or more geographic regions or customer segments may also be affected by uncertain or changing economic conditions within that region or segment, such as the debt crisis in certain countries in the European Union. Continuing uncertainty about future economic conditions may, among other things, negatively impact our current and prospective customers and result in delays or reductions in technology purchases or lengthen our sales cycle. Adverse economic conditions also may negatively impact our ability to obtain payment for outstanding debts owed to us by our customers or other parties with whom we do business. In addition, these conditions may impact our investment portfolio, and we could determine that some of our investments have experienced an other-than-temporary decline in fair value, requiring an impairment charge that could adversely impact our financial condition and operating results. Also, these conditions may make it more difficult to forecast operating results. If global economic conditions, or economic conditions in the United States, European Union or in other key geographic regions or customer segments, remain uncertain or persist, spread or deteriorate further, current and prospective customers may delay or reduce their IT spending, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

If we fail to continue to establish and maintain strategic distribution and other collaborative relationships with industry-leading companies, we may not be able to attract and retain a larger customer base.

Our success depends in part on our ability to continue to establish and maintain strategic distribution and other collaborative relationships with industry-leading hardware manufacturers, distributors, software vendors,

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cloud providers and enterprise solutions providers such as Amazon.com, Inc. (“Amazon”), Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”), Dell Inc. (“Dell”), Fujitsu Limited, Hewlett-Packard Co. (“HP”), International Business Machines Corporation (“IBM”), NEC Corporation (“NEC”), Oracle Corporation (“Oracle”), SAP AG (“SAP”) and others. These relationships allow us to offer our technologies to a much larger customer base than we would otherwise be able through our direct sales and marketing efforts. We may not be able to maintain these relationships or replace them on attractive terms. In addition, our existing strategic relationships do not, and any future strategic relationships may not, afford us any exclusive marketing or distribution rights. Some of our channel partners offer competing products and services. As a result of these factors, many of the companies with which we have strategic alliances may choose to pursue alternative technologies and develop alternative products and services in addition to or in lieu of our offerings, either on their own or in collaboration with others, including our competitors. Moreover, we cannot guarantee that the companies with which we have strategic relationships will market our offerings effectively or continue to devote the resources necessary to provide us with effective sales, marketing and technical support. As our agreements with strategic partners terminate or expire, we may be unable to renew or replace these agreements on comparable terms, or at all.

We rely, to a significant degree, on indirect sales channels for the distribution of our offerings, and disruption within these channels could adversely affect our business and operating results.

We use a variety of different indirect distribution methods for our offerings, including channel partners such as OEMs, distributors and resellers. A number of these partners in turn distribute via their own networks of channel partners with whom we have no direct relationship. We rely, to a significant degree, on each of our channel partners to select, screen and maintain relationships with its distribution network and to distribute our offerings in a manner that is consistent with applicable regulatory requirements and Red Hat’s quality standards. Our channel partners may not distribute and market our offerings effectively.

Recruiting and retaining qualified channel partners and training them in the use of our enterprise technologies requires significant time and resources. If we fail to devote sufficient resources to support and expand our network of channel partners, our operating results may be adversely affected. In addition, because we rely on channel partners for the indirect distribution of our enterprise technologies, we may have little or no contact with the ultimate end-users of our technologies, thereby making it more difficult for us to establish brand awareness, ensure proper delivery and installation of our software, support ongoing customer requirements, estimate end-user demand, respond to evolving customer needs and obtain subscription renewals from end-users.

If our indirect distribution channel is disrupted, we may be required to devote more resources to distribute our offerings directly and support our customers, which may not be as effective and could lead to higher costs, reduced revenue and growth that is slower than expected.

We have entered into and may continue to enter into or seek to enter into business combinations and acquisitions, which may be difficult to complete and integrate, disrupt our business, divert management’s attention, adversely affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows and dilute stockholder value.

As part of our business strategy, we have in the past entered into business combinations and acquisitions, and we may continue to do so in the future. These types of transactions can increase the expense of running our business and present significant challenges and risks, including:

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There can be no assurance that we will manage these challenges and risks successfully. Moreover, if we are not successful in completing transactions that we have pursued or may pursue, our business may be adversely affected, and we may incur substantial expenses and divert significant management time and resources. In addition, in pursuing and completing such transactions, we could use substantial portions of our available cash as payment and as retention incentives to employees of the acquired business, or we may incur substantial debt. We could also issue additional securities as all or a portion of the purchase price for these transactions, which could cause our stockholders to suffer significant dilution. Any transaction may not generate additional revenue or profit for us, or may take longer to do so than expected, which may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.

If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our financial condition, operating results and cash flows could be adversely affected.

We have expanded our operations rapidly in recent years. For example, our total revenue increased from $909.3 million for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2011 to $1.13 billion for the fiscal year ended February 29, 2012. Moreover, the total number of our employees increased from over 3,700 as of February 28, 2011 to over 4,500 as of February 29, 2012 and is expected to generally increase in the foreseeable future. In addition, we continue to explore ways to extend our offerings and geographic reach. Our growth has placed and will likely continue to place a strain on our management systems, information systems, resources and internal controls. Our ability to successfully provide our offerings and implement our business plan requires adequate information systems and resources, internal controls and oversight from our senior management.

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As we expand in international markets, these challenges increase as a result of the need to support a growing business in an environment of multiple languages, cultures, customs, legal systems, dispute resolution systems, regulatory systems and commercial practices. As we grow, we must also continue to hire, train, supervise and manage new employees. We may not be able to adequately screen and hire or adequately train, supervise and manage sufficient personnel or develop management, or effectively manage and develop our controls and oversight functions and information systems to adequately manage our growth effectively. If we are unable to adequately manage our growth, our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows could be adversely affected.

We include software licensed from other parties in our offerings, the loss of which could increase our costs and delay availability of our offerings.

We utilize various types of software licensed from unaffiliated third parties in our offerings. Aspects of our business could be disrupted if any of the software we license from others or functional equivalents of this software were no longer available to us, no longer offered to us on commercially reasonable terms or changed in ways or included defects that made the third-party software unsuitable for our use. In these cases, we would be required to either redesign our technologies to function with software available from other parties, develop these components ourselves or eliminate the functionality, which could result in increased costs, the need to mitigate customer issues, delays in delivery of our offerings and the release of new offerings and limit the features available in our current or future offerings.

We may not be able to continue to attract and retain capable management.

Our future success depends on the continued services and effectiveness of a number of key management personnel, including our CEO, who assumed his role on January 1, 2008. Our ability to retain key management personnel or hire capable new management personnel as we grow may be challenged to the extent the technology sector performs well and/or if companies with more generous compensation packages or greater perceived growth opportunities compete for the same personnel. In addition, historically we have used share-based compensation as a key component of our compensation packages. Changes in the accounting for share-based compensation could adversely affect our earnings or force us to use more cash compensation to attract and retain capable personnel. If the price of our common stock falls, the value of our share-based awards to recipients is reduced. Such events, or if we are unable to secure shareholder approval for increases in the number of shares eligible for share-based compensation grants, could adversely affect our ability to successfully attract and retain key management personnel. Effective succession planning is also important to our long-term success. Failure to ensure effective transfer of knowledge and smooth transitions involving key management personnel could hinder our strategic planning and execution.

We depend on our key non-management employees, the loss of which could adversely affect our business or stock price and diminish our brands.

Competition in our industry for qualified employees, especially technical employees, is intense and from time to time our competitors directly target our employees. The loss of the technical knowledge and industry expertise of any of these individuals could seriously impede our success. Moreover, the loss of these individuals, particularly to a competitor, some of which may be in a position to offer greater compensation, and any resulting loss of customers could reduce our market share and diminish our brands and adversely affect our business or stock price. We have from time to time in the past experienced, and we may experience in the future, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications.

A number of our key employees have become, or will soon become, vested in a significant amount of their equity compensation awards. Employees may be more likely to leave us after a significant portion of their equity compensation awards fully vest, especially if the shares underlying the equity awards have significantly appreciated in value. If we do not succeed in retaining and motivating our key employees and attracting new key personnel, our business, financial performance and stock price may decline.

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Our corporate culture has contributed to our success, and if we cannot maintain this culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, creativity and teamwork fostered by our culture, and our business may be harmed.

We believe that a critical contributor to our success has been our corporate culture, which we believe fosters innovation, creativity and teamwork. As our organization grows, and we are required to implement more complex organizational management structures, we may find it increasingly difficult to maintain beneficial aspects of our corporate culture. If we are unable to maintain our corporate culture, we may find it difficult to attract and retain motivated employees.

Our subscription-based contract model may encounter customer resistance or we may experience a decline in the demand for our offerings.

We provide Red Hat enterprise technologies under annual or multi-year subscriptions. Through the life of a subscription, a customer is entitled to specified levels of support as well as security updates, fixes, functionality enhancements and upgrades to the technology, when and if available, via the Red Hat Customer Portal. While we believe this practice complies with the requirements of the GNU General Public License, and while we have reviewed this practice with the Free Software Foundation, the organization that maintains and provides interpretations of the GNU General Public License, we may still encounter customer resistance to this distribution model or customers may fail to honor the terms of our subscription agreements. To the extent we are unsuccessful in promoting or defending this distribution model, our business and operating results could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, our customers generally undertake a significant evaluation process that may result in a lengthy sales cycle. We spend substantial time, effort, and money on our sales efforts without any assurance that our efforts will produce any sales. As technologies and the markets for our enterprise offerings change, our subscription-based contract model may no longer meet the needs of our customers. If we are unable to adapt our contract model to changes in the marketplace, our business and operating results could be adversely impacted.

If our current and future customers do not renew their subscription agreements with us, our operating results may be adversely impacted.

Our customers may not renew their subscriptions after the expiration of their subscription agreements and in fact, some customers elect not to do so. In addition, our customers may opt for a lower-priced edition of our offerings or for fewer subscriptions. We have limited historical data with respect to rates of customer subscription renewals, so we cannot accurately predict customer renewal rates. Our customers’ renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including their level of satisfaction with our services and their ability to continue their operations and spending levels. Government contracts could be subject to future funding that may affect the extension or termination of programs and generally are subject to the right of the government to terminate for convenience or non-appropriation. If we experience a decline in the renewal rates for our customers or they opt for lower-priced editions of our offerings or fewer subscriptions, our operating results may be adversely impacted.

If open source software programmers, most of whom we do not employ, do not continue to develop and enhance open source technologies, we may be unable to develop new technologies, adequately enhance our existing technologies or meet customer requirements for innovation, quality and price.

We rely to a significant degree on a number of largely informal communities of independent open source software programmers to develop and enhance our enterprise technologies. For example, Linus Torvalds, a prominent open source software developer, and a relatively small group of software engineers, many of whom are not employed by us, are primarily responsible for the development and evolution of the Linux kernel, which is the heart of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system. If these groups of programmers fail to adequately further develop and enhance open source technologies, we would have to rely on other parties to develop and

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enhance our offerings or we would need to develop and enhance our offerings with our own resources. We cannot predict whether further developments and enhancements to these technologies would be available from reliable alternative sources. In either event, our development expenses could be increased and our technology release and upgrade schedules could be delayed. Moreover, if third-party software programmers fail to adequately further develop and enhance open source technologies, the development and adoption of these technologies could be stifled and our offerings could become less competitive. Delays in developing, completing or delivering new or enhanced offerings could result in delayed or reduced revenue for those offerings and could also adversely affect customer acceptance of those offerings.

If third-party enterprise hardware and software providers do not continue to make offerings compatible with our offerings, our software may cease to be competitive and our business and financial performance may be adversely affected.

The competitive position of our offerings is dependent on their compatibility with offerings of third-party enterprise hardware and software companies. To the extent that a software or hardware vendor might have or develop products that compete with ours, the vendor may have an incentive to seek to limit the performance, functionality or compatibility of our offerings when used with one or more of the vendor’s offerings. In addition, these vendors may fail to support or issue statements of compatibility or certification of our offerings when used with their offerings. We intend to encourage the development of additional applications that operate on both current and new versions of our offerings by, among other means, attracting third-party developers to our offerings, providing open source tools to create these applications and maintaining our existing developer relationships through marketing and technical support. We intend to encourage the compatibility of our software with various third-party hardware and software offerings by maintaining and expanding our relationships, both business and technical, with relevant independent hardware and software vendors. If we are not successful in achieving these goals, however, our offerings may not be competitive and our business and financial performance may be adversely affected.

We may be unable to predict the future course of open source technology development, which could reduce the market appeal of our offerings, damage our reputation and adversely affect our financial performance.

We do not exercise control over many aspects of the development of open source technology. Different groups of open source software programmers compete with one another to develop new technology. Typically, the technology developed by one group will become more widely used than that developed by others. If we acquire or adopt new technology and incorporate it into our offerings but competing technology becomes more widely used or accepted, the market appeal of our offerings may be reduced and that could harm our reputation, diminish our brands and adversely affect our financial performance.

Because of the characteristics of open source software, there are few technology barriers to entry into the open source market by new competitors and it may be relatively easy for competitors, some of which may have greater resources than we have, to enter our markets and compete with us.

One of the characteristics of open source software is that anyone can modify and redistribute the existing open source software and use it to compete with us. Such competition can develop without the degree of overhead and lead time required by traditional proprietary software companies. It is possible for new competitors with greater resources than ours to develop their own open source solutions, potentially reducing the demand for, and putting price pressure on, our solutions. For example, Oracle has developed its own version of the Linux operating system and sells support both for its version of the Linux operating system and for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In addition, some competitors make their open source software available for free download and use on an ad hoc basis or may position their open source software as a loss leader. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors or that competitive pressure and/or the availability of open source software will not result in price reductions, reduced operating margins and loss of market share, any one of which could seriously harm our business.

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Industry consolidation may lead to increased competition and may harm our operating results.

There has been a trend of consolidation in the technology industry for several years. We expect this trend to continue as companies attempt to strengthen or hold their market positions in an evolving industry and as companies are acquired or are unable to continue operations. For example, in early 2010, Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Inc. (“Sun”). Oracle’s acquisition of Sun created a large, integrated supplier of enterprise software that also provides hardware optimized for these software products. We believe that industry consolidation may result in stronger competitors that are better able to compete as sole-source vendors for customers. This could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

Our continued success depends on our ability to adapt to a rapidly changing industry. Investment in new business strategies and initiatives could disrupt our ongoing business and may present risks not originally contemplated.

We operate in highly competitive markets that are characterized by rapid technological change and frequent new product and service announcements. We must continue to invest significant resources in research and development in order to enhance our existing offerings and introduce new high-quality offerings. If we are unable to ensure that our users and customers have a high-quality experience with our offerings, then they may become dissatisfied and move to competitors’ products and services. In addition, if we are unable to predict user preferences or industry changes, or if we are unable to modify our offerings on a timely basis, we may lose customers.

Our future success will depend on our ability to adapt to rapidly changing technologies, to adapt our services to evolving industry standards and to improve the performance and reliability of our services. Our failure to adapt to such changes could harm our business. In addition, the widespread adoption of other technological changes could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our offerings or infrastructure. Delays in developing, completing or delivering new or enhanced offerings and technologies could result in delayed or reduced revenue for those offerings and could also adversely affect customer acceptance of those offerings and technologies. The success of new and enhanced offering introductions depends on several factors, including our ability to develop and complete new offerings in a timely manner, successfully promote the offerings, manage the risks associated with the offerings, make sufficient resources available to support them and address any quality or other defects in the early stages of introduction.

Moreover, we believe that our continued success depends on our investing in new business strategies or initiatives that complement our strategic direction and technology road map. Such endeavors may involve significant risks and uncertainties, including distraction of management’s attention away from other business operations, and insufficient revenue generation to offset liabilities and expenses undertaken with such strategies and initiatives. Because these endeavors may be inherently risky, no assurance can be given that such endeavors will not materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.

Our continued success depends on our ability to maintain and enhance strong brands.

We believe that the brand identities that we have developed have contributed significantly to the success of our business. We also believe that maintaining and enhancing our brands is important to expanding our customer base and attracting talented employees. In order to maintain and enhance our brands, we may be required to make substantial investments that may not be successful. If we fail to promote and maintain our brands, or if we incur excessive costs in doing so, our business, operating results and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected. Maintaining our brands will depend in part on our ability to remain a leader in open source technology and our ability to continue to provide high-quality offerings.

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Our Red Hat Virtualization, cloud computing and storage offerings are based on emerging technologies and business models, and the potential market for these offerings remains uncertain.

Our Red Hat Virtualization, cloud computing and storage offerings are based on emerging technologies and business models, the success of which will depend on the perceived technological and operational benefits and cost savings associated with the adoption of these technologies. The cloud computing, storage and virtualization market segments are rapidly evolving, and we expect competition to remain intense. In addition, we may make errors in predicting and reacting to relevant business trends.

Adoption of virtualization and cloud computing offerings may occur more slowly or less pervasively than we expect and the revenue growth associated with these offerings may be slower than currently expected. Moreover, even if virtualization and cloud computing are adopted widely by enterprises, our offerings in these areas may not attract a sufficient number of users or generate attractive financial results. In either case, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.

If our growth rate slows, our stock price could be adversely impacted.

As the markets for our offerings mature and the scale of our business increases, our rate of revenue growth will likely be lower than the growth rates we experienced in earlier periods. In addition, to the extent that the adoption of our offerings occurs more slowly or is less pervasive than we expect, our revenue growth rates may slow materially or our revenue may decline substantially, which could adversely affect our stock price.

Security and privacy breaches may expose us to liability and harm our reputation and business.

Our business involves the production and distribution of enterprise software technologies. As part of our business we receive and process information about our employees, customers and partners, and we may store (or contract with third parties to store) our customers’ data. While we take security and testing measures relating to our offerings and operations, those measures may not prevent security breaches that could harm our business. Advances in computer capabilities, new discoveries in the field of cryptography, inadequate technology or facility security measures or other factors may result in a compromise or breach of our systems and the data we store and process. Our security measures may be breached as a result of actions by third parties or employee error or malfeasance. A party who is able to circumvent our security measures or exploit inadequacies in our security measures, could, among other things, misappropriate proprietary information (including information about our employees, customers and partners and our customers’ information), cause the loss or disclosure of some or all of this information, cause interruptions in our or our customers’ operations or expose customers (and their customers) to computer viruses or other disruptions or vulnerabilities. Any compromise of our systems or the data we store or process could result in a loss of confidence in the security of our offerings, damage our reputation, disrupt our business, lead to legal liability and adversely affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows. A compromise to our systems could remain undetected for an extended period of time, exacerbating the impact of that compromise. Actual or perceived vulnerabilities may lead to claims against us by customers, partners or other third parties, which could be material. While our customer agreements typically contain provisions that seek to limit our liability, there is no assurance these provisions will be enforceable and effective under applicable law. In addition, the cost and operational consequences of implementing further data protection measures could be significant.

We are vulnerable to technology infrastructure failures, which could harm our reputation and business.

We rely on our technology infrastructure for many functions, including selling our offerings, supporting our partners, fulfilling orders and billing, collecting and making payments. We also rely on the technology infrastructure of third parties to provide some of our offerings. This technology infrastructure may be vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, power loss, telecommunication failures, terrorist attacks, computer intrusions and viruses, software errors, computer denial-of-service attacks and other events. A

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significant number of the systems making up this infrastructure are not redundant, and our disaster recovery planning is not sufficient for every eventuality. This technology infrastructure is also subject to break-ins, sabotage and intentional acts of vandalism by internal employees, contractors and third parties. Despite any precautions we may take, such problems could result in, among other consequences, interruptions in our services and loss of data, which could harm our reputation, business and financial condition. We do not carry business interruption insurance sufficient to protect us from all losses that may result from interruptions in our services as a result of technology infrastructure failures or to cover all contingencies. Any interruption in the availability of our websites and on-line interactions with customers and partners would create a large volume of questions and complaints that would need to be addressed by our support personnel. If our support personnel cannot meet this demand, customer and partner satisfaction levels may fall, which in turn could cause additional claims, reduced revenue or loss of customers.

A decline in or reprioritization of funding in the U.S. government budget or delays in the budget process could adversely affect our business and future financial performance.

We derive, and expect to continue to derive, a portion of our revenue from U.S. government agencies. Concerns about increased deficit spending, along with continued economic challenges, continue to place pressure on U.S. government spending. The termination of, or delayed or reduced funding for, programs or contracts from which we derive revenue could adversely affect our business and financial performance.

If we fail to comply with our customer contracts or government contracting regulations, our business could suffer.

Our contracts with our customers may include unique and specialized performance requirements. In particular, our contracts with federal, state, provincial and local governmental customers are subject to various procurements regulations, contract provisions and other requirements relating to their formation, administration and performance. Any failure by us to comply with the specific provisions in our customer contracts or any violation of government contracting regulations could result in the imposition of various civil and criminal penalties, which may include termination of contracts, forfeiture of profits, suspension of payments and, in the case of our government contracts, fines and suspension from future government contracting. In addition, we may be subject to qui tam litigation, the process by which a private individual sues or prosecutes on behalf of the government relating to government contracts and shares in the proceeds of any successful litigation or settlement, which could include claims for up to treble damages. Further, any negative publicity related to our customer contracts or any proceedings surrounding them, regardless of its accuracy, may damage our business and affect our ability to compete for new contracts. There is increased pressure for governments and their agencies, both domestically and internationally, to reduce spending. If our customer contracts are terminated, if we are suspended from government work, or if our ability to compete for new contracts is adversely affected, we could suffer an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

RISKS RELATED TO LEGAL UNCERTAINTY

If our technologies are found or alleged to infringe third-party intellectual property rights, we could be required to redesign our offerings, replace components of our offerings, enter into license agreements with third parties and provide infringement indemnification.

We regularly commit to our subscription customers that if portions of our offerings are found to infringe any third-party intellectual property rights we will, at our expense and option: (i) obtain the right for the customer to continue to use the technology consistent with their subscription agreement with us; (ii) modify the technology so that it is non-infringing; or (iii) replace the infringing component with a non-infringing component, and indemnify them against specified infringement claims. Although we cannot predict whether we will need to satisfy these commitments and often have limitations on these commitments, satisfying the commitments could be costly and time consuming and could materially and adversely affect our operating results and financial condition. In addition, our insurance policies would likely not adequately cover our exposure to this type of claim.

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We are vulnerable to claims that our technologies infringe third-party intellectual property rights because our technologies are comprised of software components, many of which are developed by numerous independent parties, and an adverse legal decision affecting our intellectual property could materially harm our business.

We are vulnerable to claims that our technologies infringe third-party intellectual property rights, including patent, copyright and trade secrets because our technologies are comprised of software components, many of which are developed by numerous independent parties. Moreover, because the scope of software patent protection is often not well defined or readily determinable, patent applications in the United States are not publicly disclosed at the time of filing, and the number of software patents that are issued each year is significant and growing, we may be unable to assess the relevance of patents to our technologies, or take appropriate responsive action, in a timely or economic manner. Our exposure to risks associated with the use of intellectual property may increase as a result of acquisitions. In addition, third parties may make infringement and similar or related claims after we have acquired technology that had not been asserted prior to our acquisition. These risks have been amplified by the increase in third parties whose sole or primary business is to assert such claims.

In the past, our technologies have been subject to intellectual property infringement claims. We expect these claims to increase as the size of our business and market share grow, the number of products and competitors in our industry grows and the functionality of products in different portions of the industry overlap. We may not be able to accurately assess the risk related to these suits, and we may be unable to accurately assess our level of exposure.

Defending patent and other intellectual property claims, even claims without significant merit, can be time consuming, costly and can divert the attention of technical and management personnel. We may receive unfavorable preliminary or interim rulings in the course of litigation, and there can be no assurances that favorable final outcomes will be obtained in all cases. We may decide to settle certain lawsuits and disputes on terms that are unfavorable to us. Similarly, if any litigation to which we are a party is resolved adversely, we may be subject to an unfavorable judgment that may not be reversed upon appeal. The terms of such a settlement or judgment may require us to cease offering certain of our technologies or pay substantial amounts to the other party. In addition, we may have to seek a license to continue offering technologies found to be in violation of a third party’s rights, which may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all, and may significantly increase our operating costs and expenses. As a result, we may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology or practices or discontinue the practices. The development of alternative non-infringing technology or practices could require significant effort and expense or may not be feasible.

An adverse legal decision regarding the intellectual property in and to our technology and other offerings could adversely affect our business and may do so materially. See “Legal Proceedings”.

Our activities, or the activities of our partners, may violate anticorruption laws and regulations that apply to us.

In many foreign countries, particularly in certain developing economies, it is not uncommon to engage in business practices that are prohibited by regulations that may apply to us, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.K. Bribery Act and similar laws. Although we have policies and procedures designed to promote compliance with these laws, our employees, contractors, partners and agents, as well as those companies to which we outsource certain of our business operations, may take actions in violation of our policies and procedures. Any violation of these laws and regulations could result in fines; criminal sanctions against us, our officers, or our employees; prohibitions on the conduct of our business; and damage to our reputation.

We could be prevented from selling or developing our software if the GNU General Public License and similar licenses under which our technologies are developed and licensed are not enforceable or are modified so as to become incompatible with other open source licenses.

A number of our offerings, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, have been developed and licensed under the GNU General Public License and similar open source licenses. These licenses state that any program licensed

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under them may be liberally copied, modified and distributed. It is possible that a court would hold these licenses to be unenforceable or that someone could assert a claim for proprietary rights in a program developed and distributed under them. Any ruling by a court that these licenses are not enforceable, or that open source components of our offerings may not be liberally copied, modified or distributed, may have the effect of preventing us from distributing or developing all or a portion of our offerings. In addition, licensors of open source software employed in our offerings may, from time to time, modify the terms of their license agreements in such a manner that those license terms may no longer be compatible with other open source licenses in our offerings or our end user license agreement, and thus could, among other consequences, prevent us from continuing to distribute the software code subject to the modified license.

Our offerings may contain defects that may be costly to correct, delay market acceptance of our enterprise technologies and expose us to claims and litigation.

Despite our testing procedures, errors have been and will continue to be found in our enterprise technologies after deployment. This risk is exacerbated by the fact that much of the code in our technologies is developed by independent parties over whom we exercise no supervision or control. If errors are discovered, we may have to make significant expenditures of capital and devote significant technical resources to analyze, correct, eliminate or work around them and may not be able to successfully do so in a timely manner or at all. Errors and failures in our offerings could result in a loss of, or delay in, market acceptance of our enterprise technologies, loss of existing or potential customers and delayed or lost revenue and could damage our reputation and our ability to convince enterprise users of the benefits of our technologies.

In addition, errors in our technologies could cause system failures, loss of data or other adverse effects for our customers who may assert warranty and other claims for substantial damages against us. Although our agreements with our customers often contain provisions which seek to limit our exposure to potential product liability claims, it is possible that these provisions may not be effective or enforceable under the laws of some jurisdictions. In addition, our insurance policies may not adequately limit our exposure to this type of claim. These claims, even if unsuccessful, could be costly and time consuming to defend and could materially harm our business.

Our efforts to protect our trademarks may not be adequate to prevent third parties from misappropriating our intellectual property rights in our trademarks.

Our collection of trademarks is valuable and important to our business. The protective steps we have taken in the past have been, and may in the future continue to be, inadequate to protect and deter misappropriation of our trademark rights. We may be unable to detect the unauthorized use of, or take appropriate steps to enforce, our trademark rights in a timely manner. We have registered some of our trademarks in countries in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia and have other trademark applications pending in various countries around the world. Effective trademark protection may not be available in every country in which we offer or intend to distribute our offerings. We may be unable to prevent third parties from acquiring domain names that are similar to, infringe upon, or diminish the value of our trademarks and other proprietary rights. Failure to adequately protect our trademark rights could damage or even destroy one or more of our brands and impair our ability to compete effectively. Furthermore, defending or enforcing our trademark rights could result in the expenditure of significant financial and managerial resources.

Efforts to assert intellectual property ownership rights in our technologies could impact our standing in the open source community, which could limit our technology innovation capabilities and adversely affect our business.

When we undertake actions to protect and maintain ownership and control over our intellectual property, including patents, copyrights and trademark rights, our standing in the open source community could be adversely affected, which in turn could limit our ability to continue to rely on this community, upon which we are dependent, as a resource to help develop and improve our technologies and further our research and development efforts, and could adversely affect our business.

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We are, and may become, involved in disputes and lawsuits that could have a material adverse effect on our performance or stock price.

Lawsuits or legal proceedings may be commenced against us. These disputes and proceedings may involve significant expense and divert the attention of management and other employees. If we do not prevail in these matters, we could be required to pay substantial damages or settlement costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or operating results. See “Legal Proceedings” for additional information on this and other certain matters that may affect our performance or stock price.

Our business is subject to a variety of U.S. and international laws regarding data privacy and protection.

Our business is subject to federal, state and international laws regarding privacy and protection of user data. We post, on our website, our privacy policies and practices concerning the use and disclosure of user data. As Internet commerce continues to evolve, increasing regulation by federal, state or foreign agencies becomes more likely. Increased regulation in the area of data privacy and protection, and laws and regulations applying to the solicitation, collection, processing, protection or use of information could affect our ability to use and share data, or the adoption of our cloud offerings by customers. Any failure by us to comply with our posted privacy policies or other federal, state or international privacy-related or data protection laws and regulations could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

It is possible that these laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our data practices. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines and penalties, a governmental order requiring that we change our data practices could result, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business. Compliance with these regulations may involve significant costs or require changes in business practices that result in reduced revenue. Noncompliance could result in penalties being imposed on us or orders that we cease conducting the noncompliant activity.

RISKS RELATED TO FINANCIAL UNCERTAINTY

Our quarterly and annual operating results may not be a reliable indicator of our future financial performance.

Due to the unpredictability of the technology spending environment, among other reasons, our revenue and operating results have fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate. We base our current and projected future expense levels, in part, on our estimates of future revenue. Our expenses are, to a large extent, fixed in the short term. Accordingly, we may not be able to adjust our spending quickly enough to protect our projected operating results for a quarter if our revenue in that quarter falls short of our expectations. If, among other considerations, our future financial performance falls below the expectations of securities analysts or investors or we are unable to increase or maintain profitability, the market price of our common stock may decline.

Our stock price has been volatile historically and may continue to be volatile. Further, the sale of our common stock by significant stockholders may cause the price of our common stock to decrease.

The trading price of our common stock has been and may continue to be subject to wide fluctuations. Our stock price may fluctuate in response to a number of events and factors, such as quarterly variations in operating results, announcements of technological innovations or new products by us or our competitors, announcements relating to strategic decisions, announcements related to key personnel, customer purchase delays, service disruptions, changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts, the operating and stock price performance of other companies that investors may deem comparable to us, news reports relating to trends in our markets, general economic conditions and other risks listed herein.

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In addition, several of our stockholders own significant portions of our common stock. If these stockholders were to sell all or a portion of their holdings of our common stock, then the market price of our common stock could be negatively impacted. The effect of such sales, or of significant portions of our stock being offered or made available for sale, could result in strong downward pressure on our stock price. Investors should be aware that they could experience significant short-term volatility in our stock if such stockholders decide to sell all or a portion of their holdings of our common stock at once or within a short period of time.

We may lack the financial and operational resources needed to increase our market share and compete effectively.

In the market for operating systems, we face significant competition from larger companies with greater financial, operational and technical resources and name recognition than we have. Competitors, which offer hardware-independent multi-user operating systems for Intel platforms and/or Linux and UNIX-based operating systems, include HP, IBM, Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”), Oracle and Unisys Corporation.

In the market for middleware offerings, we face significant competition from larger companies with greater financial, operational and technical resources and name recognition than we have. These competitors include, but are not limited to, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and VMware, Inc. (“VMware”) all of which offer portfolios of enterprise Java and non-Java middleware products. IBM and Oracle often bundle hardware and software for their customers, making it more difficult to penetrate these customer bases.

In the market for virtualization we face significant competition from larger companies with greater financial, operational and technical resources and name recognition than we have. These competitors include, but are not limited to, Attachmate Corporation, Citrix Systems, Inc., Microsoft, Oracle and VMware.

We face competition in the market for services related to the deployment of enterprise technologies and the development and integration of applications. Our competitors in the market include Accenture plc, HP, IBM and Tata Consultancy Services Limited, as well as other technology consulting companies. Some of these competitors may be able to leverage their existing service organizations and provide higher levels of consulting and training on a more cost-effective basis than we can.

With our cloud technologies we compete with companies that provide tools for enterprises to create private clouds, such as Microsoft and VMware, as well as with companies that provide public clouds, such as Amazon, Google Inc., Microsoft and Rackspace Hosting, Inc.

With our storage offerings we compete with companies that provide software-based storage products, such as EMC Corporation and NetApp, Inc.

We may lack the resources needed to compete successfully with our current competitors as well as potential new competitors. Moreover, we compete in certain areas with our strategic partners and potential strategic partners, and this may adversely impact our relationship with an individual partner or a number of partners. Competitive pressures could affect prices or demand for our offerings, resulting in reduced profit margins and loss of market opportunity. We may have to lower the prices of our offerings to stay competitive, which could affect our margins and financial condition. In addition, if our pricing and other factors are not sufficiently competitive, we may lose market share. Industry consolidation may also effect competition by creating larger and potentially stronger competitors in the markets in which we compete, which may have an adverse effect on our business.

We may not be able to meet the financial and operational challenges that we will encounter as our international operations, which represented approximately 45.1% of our total revenue for the fiscal year ended February 29, 2012, continue to expand.

Our international operations accounted for approximately 45.1% of total revenue for the fiscal year ended February 29, 2012. As we expand our international operations, we may have difficulty managing and

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administering a globally dispersed business and we may need to expend additional funds to, among other activities, reorganize our sales force and technical support services team, outsource or supplement general and administrative functions, staff key management positions, obtain additional information technology infrastructure and successfully localize offerings for a significant number of international markets, which may negatively affect our operating results.

Additional challenges associated with the conduct of our business overseas that may negatively affect our operating results include:

Any failure by us to effectively manage the challenges associated with the international expansion of our operations could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

A substantial portion of our revenues is derived from our Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform.

During our fiscal year ended February 29, 2012, a substantial portion of our subscription revenues was derived from our Red Hat Enterprise Linux technologies. Although we are continuing to develop other offerings, we expect that revenue from Red Hat Enterprise Linux will constitute a majority of our revenue for the foreseeable future. Declines and variability in demand for Red Hat Enterprise Linux could occur as a result of:

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Additionally, as more customers and potential customers virtualize their data centers and move computing projects to cloud environments, demand for operating systems such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux may decline. Due to the concentration of our revenues from Red Hat Enterprise Linux, our financial condition, operating results and cash flows could be adversely affected by a decline in demand for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

We may be subject to greater tax liabilities.

We are subject to income and other taxes in the U.S. and in numerous foreign jurisdictions. Our domestic and foreign tax liabilities are subject to the allocation of revenue and expenses in different jurisdictions. Additionally, the amount of taxes paid is subject to our interpretation of applicable tax laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes. In the ordinary course of our business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. We are regularly subject to audits by tax authorities. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, the final determination of tax audits and any related litigation could be materially different from our historical income tax provisions and accruals. The results of an audit or litigation could have a material effect on our financial statements in the period or periods for which that determination is made.

We earn a significant amount of our operating income from outside the U.S., and any repatriation of funds currently held in foreign jurisdictions may result in higher effective tax rates for the company. In addition, there have been proposals to change U.S. tax laws that would significantly impact how U.S. multinational corporations are taxed on foreign earnings. Although we cannot predict whether or in what form this proposed legislation may pass, if enacted it could have a material adverse impact on our tax expense and cash flows.

Because we recognize revenue from subscriptions for our service over the term of the subscription, downturns or upturns in sales may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.

We generally recognize subscription revenue from customers ratably over the term of their subscription agreements, which are generally 12 to 36 months. As a result, much of the revenue we report in each quarter is deferred revenue from subscription agreements entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in subscriptions in any one quarter will not necessarily be fully reflected in the revenue in that quarter and will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. In addition, we may be unable to adjust our cost structure to reflect this reduced revenue. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our service, and potential changes in our rate of renewals, may not be fully reflected in our operating results until future periods. Our subscription model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers must be recognized over the applicable subscription term.

If our goodwill or amortizable intangible assets become impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings.

Under generally accepted accounting principles, we review our amortizable intangible assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. Goodwill is required to be tested for impairment at least annually. Factors that may be considered a change in circumstances indicating that the carrying value of our goodwill or amortizable intangible assets may not be recoverable include a decline in stock price and market capitalization, reduced future cash flow estimates and slower growth rates in our industry. We may be required to record a significant charge to earnings in our financial statements during the period in which any impairment of our goodwill or amortizable intangible assets is determined resulting in an adverse impact on our operating results.

We may be exposed to potential risks if we do not have an effective system of disclosure controls or internal controls

We must comply, on an on-going basis, with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, including those provisions that establish the requirements for both management and auditors of public companies with

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respect to reporting on internal control over financial reporting. We cannot be certain that measures we have taken, and will take, will be sufficient or timely completed to meet these requirements on an on-going basis, or that we will be able to implement and maintain adequate disclosure controls and controls over our financial processes and reporting in the future, particularly in light of our rapid growth, international expansion and changes in our offerings, which are expected to result in on-going changes to our control systems and areas of potential risk.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls or internal control over financial reporting, including satisfaction of the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we may not be able to accurately or timely report on our financial results or adequately identify and reduce fraud. As a result, the financial position of our business could be harmed; current and potential future shareholders could lose confidence in us and/or our reported financial results, which may cause a negative effect on our trading price; and we could be exposed to litigation or regulatory proceedings, which may be costly or divert management attention.

Changes in accounting principles and guidance, or their interpretation, could result in unfavorable accounting charges or effects, including changes to previously filed financial statements, which could cause our stock to decline.

We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. These principles are subject to interpretation by the SEC and various bodies formed to interpret and create appropriate accounting principles and guidance. A change in these principles or guidance, or in their interpretations, may have a significant effect on our reported results and may retroactively affect previously reported results.

Our investment portfolio is subject to credit and illiquidity risks and fluctuations in the market value of our investments and interest rates. These risks may result in an impairment of or the loss of all or a portion of the value of our investments, an inability to sell our investments or a decline in interest income.

We maintain an investment portfolio of various holdings, types and maturities. Our portfolio as of February 29, 2012 consisted primarily of money market funds, U.S. government and agency securities, German sovereign securities, certificates of deposit, corporate securities and equity securities. Although we follow an established investment policy and seek to minimize the risks associated with our investments by investing primarily in investment grade, highly liquid securities and by limiting the amounts invested with any one institution, type of security or issuer, we cannot give assurances that the assets in our investment portfolio will not lose value or become impaired, or that our interest income will not decline.

A significant part of our investment portfolio consists of U.S. government and agency securities. If global credit and equity markets experience prolonged periods of decline, or if there is a default or downgrade of U.S. government or agency debt, our investment portfolio may be adversely impacted and we could determine that some of our investments have experienced an other-than-temporary decline in fair value, requiring impairment charges that could adversely impact our financial condition and operating results.

We may be required to record impairment charges for other-than-temporary declines in fair market value in our investments. Future fluctuations in economic and market conditions could adversely affect the market value of our investments, and we could record additional impairment charges and lose some or all of the principal value of investments in our portfolio. A total loss of an investment or a significant decline in the value of our investment portfolio could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition. For information regarding the sensitivity of and risks associated with the market value of portfolio investments and interest rates, see “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk”.

Our investments in private companies are subject to risk of loss of investment capital. Some of these investments may have been made to further our strategic objectives and support our key business initiatives. Our

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investments in private companies are inherently risky because the markets for the technologies they have under development are typically in the early stages and may never materialize. We could lose the value of our entire investment in these companies.

We are subject to risks of currency fluctuations and related hedging operations.

A portion of our business is conducted in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Changes in exchange rates among other currencies and the U.S. dollar will affect our net revenue, operating expenses and operating margins. We cannot predict the impact of future exchange rate fluctuations. As we expand international operations, our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations increases. We use financial instruments, primarily forward purchase contracts, to economically hedge U.S. dollar and other currency commitments arising from trade accounts receivable, trade accounts payable and fixed purchase obligations. If these hedging activities are not successful or we change or reduce these hedging activities in the future, we may experience significant unexpected expenses from fluctuations in exchange rates. For information regarding our hedging activity, see “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk”.

Natural disasters and geo-political events could adversely affect our financial performance.

The occurrence of one or more epidemics or natural disasters, such as the earthquakes in Japan and related events, or geo-political events, such as civil unrest or terrorist attacks, in a country in which we operate or in which technology industry suppliers or our customers are located, could disrupt and adversely affect our operations and financial performance. Such events could result in physical damage to, or the complete loss of, one or more of our facilities, the lack of an adequate work force in a market, the inability of our associates to reach or have transportation to our facilities directly affected by such events, the evacuation of the populace from areas in which our facilities are located, changes in the purchasing patterns of our customers, the temporary or long-term disruption in the supply of computer hardware and related components, the disruption or delay in the manufacture and transport of goods overseas, the disruption of utility services to our facilities or to suppliers, partners or customers, and disruption in our communications with our customers.

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