Red Hat May Hook Up With Google On Phone, Apps Ventures

Red Hat (RHT) and Google (GOOG) could be poised to announce some joint initiatives, according to a note this morning from Mark Murphy, an analyst at First Albany.

Murphy says one possibility would be to have Google applications run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or RHEL. He says that it also “appears” that Google is considering using RHEL to power the rumored Google Phone, “which will probably be Linux and Java-based.”

In a note this morning, Murphy asserts that “with a chance for announcements near term, investors may realize that GOOG has an interest in Linux/RHT as a potential vehicle for building a broader technology platform.”

Red Hat is holding a users group meeting this week in San Diego; he says the company could make announcements on its plans for the middleware market; virtualization as a catalyst for migration from legacy platforms to Linux; and some “tuning” of its staff.

Murphy says that Red Hat shares “appear undervalued longer term,” though he admits that “investor concerns about virtualization are unlikely to lift near term.” He repeats his Buy rating on the stock.

This morning, Red Hat is down 38 cents at $22.01.