Red Hat plans on sticking around the Triangle and will create hundreds of high-paying jobs over the next decade.

State officials approved two grants for the Raleigh software company today. The first, worth up to $6.75 million, calls for Red Hat to create 240 jobs over the next four years with average annual salaries of $80,525.

The second will be worth up to $11.02 million, and is tied to Red Hat creating 300 more jobs over a 5-year period beginning in 2015.

One stakeholder expects Red Hat to remain in Raleigh.

The software company is considering its options for new space in Durham, Atlanta, Austin and downtown Raleigh, setting off a frenzy among elected officials, economic boosters and real-estate developers. Another option would be to expand its existing headquarters on N.C. State's Centennial Campus.

"If I were a betting man, I bet they'll stay," said Ira R. Weiss, dean of N.C. State's Poole College of Management.

Of course, that's only one man's opinion. But he has more than a passing interest in the matter.

SciQuest, a Cary technology company that went public in September partly to raise money for acquisitions, has done its first deal.

SciQuest announced today that it will pay about $13 million for AECsoft and a sister company. The firms develop technology that complement SciQuest's e-procurement software and services, which allow customers to buy products more cheaply online.

All 30 employees at Houston, Texas-based AECsoft will join SciQuest, which employs nearly 200 people.

The acquisition gives SciQuest "great new products and new customers," CEO Stephen Wiehe said in a phone interview. "The business is run very well from a financial point of view."

SAS plans to hire more than 100 employees during the next two years for a new initiative aimed at selling more of its business-analytics software to state and local governments.

Gov. Bev Perdue joined SAS co-founder and CEO Jim Goodnight at the company's Cary headquarters this morning to announce the new Analytics Lab for State and Local Government and its expansion plans. 

Perdue talked enthusiastically about the work SAS is doing for the state, including a new contract that calls for SAS to prevent ineligible people from entering the state's $8.5 billion Medicaid program, and applauded the company for not seeking any government incentives in conjunction with its expansion.

"They didn't get a flat dime" from the state, said Perdue. "They have done this because they love North Carolina. They are as proud of our state as we are of SAS."

SAS has long provided analytics software for state and local governments, with that business expanding to the point that the company has decided it makes sense to have a dedicated staff develop new off-the-shelf products and working with government agencies on efforts tailored to their needs.

The new lab is starting out with a staff of more than 200 culled from its existing staff and expects to expand by at least 50 percent over the next two years to handle its expanding business. The vast majority of those new staffers will be based in Cary, with a few scattered at government agencies across the country that undertake new projects with SAS software, said spokesman Trent Smith.

SAS Institute plans to double its legal and consultant expenses in 2011, as the Cary software company tries to sort through changes coming under the federal health overhaul.

SAS is one of many companies dealing with the administrative headaches, and higher costs, brought by the reform law, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"There's administrative burden just to try and understand the 2,400 pages of the document," SAS vice president of human resources Jenn Mann told the newspaper. She declined to comment on how much SAS spends on health coverage or how much more it will pay in legal expenses.

Red Hat, the Raleigh-based software company that's sitting on more than $1 billion in cash, will use some of that money to buy a California company.

Red Hat announced this morning that it will buy Makara, a Redwood City, Calif.-based developer of software for so-called cloud computing.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

StatSheet, the Durham sports media company, is getting lots of press for its automated content.

That's what happens when you create something that has the potential to put a few journalists out of work.

The Sunday business section of the New York Times included a column about StatSheet's software, which turns game stats into game stories.

Ponyter Online, a website for journalists, also has a column about the product and StatSheet CEO Robbie Allen is scheduled to do a live chat with Poynter at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Earlier this month StatSheet launched 345 websites for every NCAA Division I men's basketball team in the country. The stories feature automated game recaps using the company's software.

As the NYT's article notes, StatSheet's software "is imbued with the smarts to flatter each particular team. The same statistics, documenting the same game, produce an entirely different write-up and headline at the opposing team’s page."

That means a write-up on this weekend's Duke-Oregon game includes phrases like Duke "waxed" the Ducks and Kyle Singler "put on a clinic." 

Computer security firm Sophos is now offering a free security tool for Mac users.

SciQuest, the Triangle's newest publicly traded company, reported a stronger third quarter.

Revenue rose to $10.8 million, up 19 percent from a year earlier. Adjusted net income of 10 cents per share exceeded the expectation of analysts.

The Cary-based technology company released its third-quarter results after the close of regular stock-market trading this afternoon.

SciQuest's shares began trading at $9.50 each in September, following the first initial public offering of stock by a Triangle tech firm in years. The shares closed today at $12.19, up 19 cents.

Skeptics sometimes say that Wall Street analysts are predictable animals that follow the pack. True cynics argue that their advice is best avoided.

With that said, it's still worth noting that on Wednesday, like clockwork, analysts from the four investment banks that took SciQuest public in September came out with initial ratings on the Cary technology company. They're required by securities regulations to wait 40 days after an IPO before releasing any reports.

Not surprisingly, all four say SciQuest's stock is a smart buy. Three of the analysts predict it will rise to $15, based on the company's healthy profit and revenue growth.

The shares, which began trading at $9.50 each, rose 83 cents today to $12.34.