AOL will not buy Red Hat Despite all the rampant speculation, I think it's pretty clear that AOL will not buy Red Hat. Why should they? Red Hat has done a pretty good job of not differentiating itself in any way, nor does it bring any scarce resources or defensible competitive advantage that AOL might be interested in. Moreover, the only valuable resource Red Hat really does have (engineering talent) is mobile and could simply be poached by AOL for a fraction of an acquisition price. So, there may be defections from Red Hat to AOL, but I'd be surprised by any purchase.