Business software maker Red Hat Inc's quarterly results edged past market expectations as demand from corporate customers drove subscription revenue growth.

The world's largest distributor of the open-source Linux operating system said September-November net income was $38.2 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with $26 million, or 13 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding items, the company earned 28 cents a share, beating analysts' expectations of 26 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 23 percent to $290 million as subscription rose by more than a fifth. Analysts had expected revenue of $289.6 million.

Red Hat sells subscriptions to upgrades, bug fixes and helpdesk support for its business software, including the widely used Linux operating system.

Shares of the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company were trading at $41.40 in extended trade on Monday. They closed at $46.05 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Soham Chatterjee in Bangalore; Editing by Viraj Nair)