There's a lot of misunderstanding here about what "Independent Company" means. In the business world, it's understood as "not having shares that are traded on t

There's a lot of misunderstanding here about what "Independent Company" means. In the business world, it's understood as "not having shares that are traded on the stock market". So, SUSE is "independent" since it has never IPO'd; while RedHat isn't "independent" as you and I can buy shares in it. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_business https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_business for confirmation: "An independent business is a business that is free from outside control. It usually means a privately owned establishment, as opposed to a public limited company, the latter of which is owned by investment shares traded in the stock market."