I remember a very similar email from my company's CEO during a merger. Within months he had retired with millions and everything had changed. I sincerely wish Red Hat and your work doesn't fall victim to a similar fate, but IBM literally owns you as of today.
The CEO doesn't have full control over everything. Plenty can (and did) change even without a change in the CEO. Again - they are literally owned by IBM now. I'd be optimistic if Red Hat really were to be fully independent with respect to products. But unless IBM made this investment purely as a financial strategy, they will absolutely begin interfering.
