In a statement issued by the company announcing that he planned to resign, Red Hat's CFO for the past four years, Kevin Thompson, said he is "proud to have been associated with Red Hat."

"I believe that Red Hat is well positioned for continued success in the future," he said. "The pace of progress at Red Hat has been incredible, though. So I now look forward to the opportunity to spend some additional time with my family."

With this announcement, Thompson becomes the second senior exec to leave RH in six months, and the timing sent alarm bells ringing: the company is due to announce its quarterly financial results just 48 hours from now.

"The role of the CFO today is much more different than when Kevin walked into the company," said Red Hat chief executive Matthew Szulik. "He felt that his skills and his talents would be more applicable in an entrepreneurial or early-stage environment."

Although RH Inc shares promptly began falling yesterday, analysts may yet be surprised. One, Amy Feng, a senior research analyst at San Francisco investment bank JMP Securities, was reported as having asked Thompson, pretty plainly: "Nine times out of ten when a CFO of your caliber resigns, that means a company is heading towards a significant ditch."

But Thompson apparently replied that he saw "no ditch." For the three-month period ended 31 May, Red Hat has said it sees net income of over $10 million - up from a profit of $1.5 million one year ago. That's 5 cents a share, compared to analyst forecasts of 4 cents a share, so it looks like the 98,000 subscriptions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux sold in the quarter have played an important financial role.