Red Hat, commercial Linux distributor, has shunned the economic meltdown once again by reporting an increase of 37 per cent in profit for the second quarter of running year.

For the second quarter ended August 31, Red Hat posted net profit of $28.9 million, or 15 cents a share, up from $21.1 million, or 10 cents a share in the same period of 2008.

Red Hat's revenue jumped 12 per cent to settle at $183.6 million during the second quarter, up from analysts’ average projection of $179.1 million.

Speaking on the result, company’s CEO Jim Whitehurst said, “In general I'm hearing very positive things from the CEOs of most of the open-source companies.”

Excluding certain items, Red Hat posted a profit of 16 cents a share, up from Wall Street expectations of 15 cents a share.

Gross margin of the company jumped to 84.5 per cent from 83.3 per cent.

In the after hours trading, shares in Red Hat soared to $25.70, gaining 3.3 per cent on the NYSE.