Opennet MEA, the Red Hat Linux Master Distributor for Middle East and Africa, has launched an aggressive development strategy based on its value-added professional services, regional expansion and new experienced staff to be seen as the MEA Red Hat experts

United Arab Emirates, October 16, 2006: Opennet MEA, the Master Distributor and Certified Training Centre of Red Hat Linux products for GCC, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and all African French-speaking countries, aims to rapidly expand its portfolio of end users, especially large enterprise accounts, through its existing network of over 200 channel partners.

Anis Krichen, Financial Director, Opennet MEA said, "For the past three years, we have been focusing on developing our activity in the small and medium business market. Our new expansion strategy is more aggressive and also involves getting more and more references with large enterprises through our business partners."

The ambitious Dubai-based, Tunisian company, that already counts Emirates Airlines and Al Ghurair Group among its end users, has been reorganizing for some months to position itself as the MEA Red Hat Linux experts.

"We are not approaching the channel just as a simple wholesaler. We have built up a business model that aims to provide our resellers with our Red Hat Linux expertise and value-added professional services such as training, support and consulting, so that they will be able to better meet their clients' needs and requirements and feel more confident of targeting the big accounts," underlined Adel Ben Zarrouk, who has been Technical Director, Opennet MEA since March 2006.

Opennet MEA's reorganization was successfully launched in March 2006 with the establishment of its headquarters in Dubai Media City while transforming its former offices located at Dubai Internet City into a fully-equipped training centre. Its regional expansion also includes the opening of its Saudi Arabia branch in Jeddah in July 2006.

"We have already started working with our partners in key markets like UAE and KSA in terms of large projects. We are now looking for strong and reliable partners ready develop the enterprise markets in Qatar and Kuwait," explained Anis Krichen.

The recruitment of a new dedicated team has seen Ons Mrabet, who previously worked with Opennet Software, the Tunisian-based sister company, to be recently appointed as Sales Manager. He will be responsible for channel development in terms of training and recruitment of new partners across the region. Mrabet has significant experience in working with emerging markets such as Algeria and Morocco.

The new team also includes Ramzi Jalajel, who recently joined Opennet MEA as its new Business Development Manager. Ramzi has a total of seven years' experience in the region with four of these spent in Saudi Arabia and UAE markets, especially with the government accounts. This will be a strong asset in Ramzi's new role working with channel partners to meet the needs of enterprises in each of the key market segments.

-Ends-

About Opennet MEA
Opennet MEA is the Master Distributor and Certified Training & Education Center of Red Hat Inc. in the following regions and countries: United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and all African French-speaking countries. Launched in 2003 in Dubai as head quarter for the Opennet Middle East & Africa operations, Opennet MEA aims to transfer its expertise on deploying Red Hat Linux to its covering regions by providing full range of consulting and professional services and assisting organizations and companies with the assessment, design and implementation of Linux solutions for ensuring high availability, reliability, performance, scalability and manageability within IT environments.

The Major Share Holder of Opennet is GMH, one of the Top 5 Holding Groups in Tunisia with more that $ 400 Million of Total Sales in Various Industries for FY'2005.  

For more information on Opennet MEA, please visit www.opennet.ae

About Red Hat Inc
Founded in 1993, Red Hat is the premier Linux and open source provider. Rated as CIO Insight Magazine's Most Valued Vendor for the second consecutive year, Red Hat maintains the highest value and reliability rankings among its customers and is the most recognized Linux brand in the world. Red Hat serves global enterprises through technology and services made possible by the open source model. Solutions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating platforms, sold through a subscription model, and a broad range of services: consulting, 24x7 support, Red Hat Network. Red Hat's global training program operates in more than 60 locations worldwide and features RHCE, the global standard Linux certification.

For more information on Red Hat strategy, please visit www.redhat.com

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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