Local Tech Wire 

Updated January 12, 2007

JBoss Founder Could Be Quitting Red Hat

By RICK SMITH Marc Fleury, the flamboyant and outspoken founder of JBoss software, may be leaving the management team of Red Hat.

Rumors have been rampant in recent days that Fleury had decided to quit Red Hat. The Linux software developer bought JBoss, which was based in Atlanta, last year for $350 million. JBoss, a developer of middleware, operates as a Red Hat subsidiary. Fleury reports directly to Matthew Szulik, Red Hat’s chairman and chief executive officer. His title is senior vice president and general manager of the JBoss division.

Fanning the rumor flames about Fleury’s possible departure was confirmation that he had taken an extended paternity leave. Fleury’s wife gave birth to a child in December.

The rumors were so strong that Red Hat issued a statement denying that Fleury is leaving.

"Marc Fleury has had a new addition to his young family,” said Leigh Day, director of global corporate communications for Red Hat. “Since much time in the past few years has been focused on growing the JBoss business, he feels it's now time to take a paternity leave and spend time with his family. We look forward to Marc's return in a few months."

However, Fleury has spoken recently about his disgruntlement with Red Hat.

CNET reported recently that Fleury shared his complaints with other JBoss employees.

"I am increasingly experiencing diminishing returns on my emotional and professional investments at Red Hat," he wrote. "Working with all of you at JBoss has been a pleasure and probably the apex of my short career."

Fleury, a former paratrooper, also told eWeek in November that he was upset Red Hat chose to spend more money on sales, support and marketing than on research and development.

"I'll say that I went to Red Hat to get an investment in the JBoss R&D division to grow it quickly," Fleury said.

"That still really hasn't happened. That's a bit of a point of frustration for me personally. But that's going to happen because now we have to grow our stack and we have to grow it fast in the light of the competition at the Linux level," he added.

Fleury has long been known as one of the more outspoken executives in the software industry. He founded JBoss, which focuses on Java programming. He also once worked at Sun.

Red Hat’s acquisition of JBoss ignited a feud with software giant Oracle, a Red Hat partner. Oracle saw the JBoss deal as a threat to the server software space that it dominates, and Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison soon launched a Linux initiative targeting Red Hat’s subscription-based support services.

The JBoss deal is expected to generate as much as $27 million in revenue for Red Hat before its fiscal year closes in February, Red Hat executives said in their last quarterly report.Copyright 2010 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.