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Riverbed Technology

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Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Riverbed Technology, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 25 July 202516 sources
Riverbed Technology LLC
Company typePrivate
IndustryInformation Technology Services
FoundedMay 23, 2002; 24 years ago (May 23, 2002)
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
United States
Key people
Dave Donatelli (CEO)
ProductsUnified Observability, Network Visibility, End User Experience Management, SD-WAN, WAN optimization, application performance management, network performance monitoring
BrandsAlluvio, Aternity
Owner
Number of employees
1,200 (2020)
Website{{URL|example.com|optional display text}}

Riverbed Technology LLC is a U.S.-based information technology enterprise that develops both software and hardware solutions focused on Unified Observability, Network Visibility, End User Experience Management, as well as network performance and application performance monitoring. Their portfolio also includes technologies related to wide area networks (WANs), such as SD-WAN and WAN optimization.

The company’s headquarters are located in Redwood City, close to San Francisco. Established in 2002, Riverbed underwent a financial restructuring in December 2021 that resulted in Apollo Global Management acquiring majority ownership. Subsequently, in 2023, the firm was purchased by private equity investor Vector Capital.

History

Riverbed Technology was originally founded in May 2002 under the name NBT (Next Big Thing) Technology by Jerry Kennelly, who served as CEO, and Steve McCanne, the CTO at the time.[1] The company adopted the Riverbed Technology brand in 2003.[2] Kennelly and McCanne spearheaded the creation of the initial SteelHead appliances, with the first unit delivered to Environment Canada in April 2004.[3]

The company went public on the NASDAQ exchange on September 21, 2006.[4] Prior to 2009, Riverbed established an additional site at Research Park, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[5]

In February 2014, hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation submitted a $3.36 billion acquisition proposal after an earlier offer of $3.08 billion had been declined.[6]

Riverbed divested its SteelStore data backup and protection product line to NetApp in October 2014; this product was later renamed "AltaVault".[7]

By December of that year, private equity firm Thoma Bravo together with Teachers’ Private Capital agreed to acquire Riverbed for roughly $3.6 billion,[8] completing the transaction in April 2015.[9]

Leadership transitions included the retirement of co-founder Jerry M. Kennelly as CEO on April 3, 2018; Paul Mountford was appointed as his successor.[10] On June 12, 2019, Riverbed broadened its footprint in the SD-WAN sector by entering a global OEM partnership to resell products from Versa Networks.[11] That same year, the Xirrus business was sold to Cambium Networks.[12] Rich McBee took over as president and CEO on October 22, 2019,[13] followed by Dan Smoot on June 9, 2021.[14]

The recapitalization finalized on December 7, 2021 bolstered Riverbed’s financial foundation with Apollo Global Management becoming the principal shareholder.[15]

In July 2023, Vector Capital completed its acquisition of Riverbed and installed Dave Donatelli as CEO.[16]

Acquisitions

On February 20, 2009, Riverbed completed the acquisition of Mazu Networks. The acquired products were renamed Cascade and subsequently integrated into Riverbed SteelCentral, significantly improving capabilities in network traffic analysis by providing detailed insights into user, application, and system interactions.

Riverbed expanded its portfolio on October 21, 2010, by acquiring CACE Technologies. This deal brought CACE’s Shark network analyzer and Pilot interface into the Cascade product line. Notably, CACE had been the corporate sponsor of the Wireshark open source network protocol analyzer project, a sponsorship that was transferred to Riverbed following the acquisition.

In November 2010, Riverbed further broadened its defense sector offerings with the purchase of Global Protocols, LLC. This company specialized in satellite communication optimization and developed the proprietary SkipWare software utilized by the U.S. Department of Defense for satellite communications.

On July 19, 2011, Riverbed acquired Zeus Technology for $140 million, securing advanced software-based load balancing and traffic management solutions tailored for virtualized and cloud environments. Zeus’s flagship product was later rebranded as Riverbed SteelApp. Concurrently on the same day, Riverbed also acquired Aptimize Limited, a Wellington-based firm focused on web content optimization. In March 2015, Brocade Communications Systems acquired the SteelApp business from Riverbed.

Riverbed took over assets from Expand Networks in Israel on January 11, 2012, through a liquidation purchase that included valuable intellectual property rights.

In December 2012, Riverbed finalized a $1 billion acquisition of OPNET Technologies, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. OPNET’s application and network performance analysis solutions were incorporated into the SteelCentral suite.

The acquisition of German SD-WAN provider Ocedo occurred on January 19, 2016. This strategic move enabled Riverbed to introduce SteelConnect in April 2016, thereby enhancing its software-defined networking capabilities.

In August 2016, Riverbed acquired Aternity Inc., integrating its end-user experience and application performance monitoring technologies into SteelCentral.

Riverbed expanded its SteelConnect offerings in April 2017 by acquiring Xirrus, a company specializing in cloud-managed Wi-Fi solutions.

To augment its network performance management portfolio further, Riverbed acquired FlowTraq on November 22, 2017.

Silver Peak Systems

Between 2011 and 2013, Riverbed engaged in patent infringement litigation with Silver Peak Systems. The disputes were resolved in June 2015 through settlements in U.S. District Courts. Both parties agreed to a mutual release and cross-licensing arrangement covering all asserted patents and related families. All claims were dismissed with no financial compensation exchanged.

Zeus Technology

Following the July 2011 acquisition of Zeus Technology Limited, the share purchase agreement stipulated potential contingent payments totaling up to $27 million based on product bookings between July 2011 and July 2012. Additionally, a $3 million bonus was designated for former Zeus employees. In October 2012, Riverbed initiated legal action seeking declaratory judgment that it had not violated the agreement and was not obligated to make any contingent payments since the specified conditions were unmet.

See also

External links

  1. ↑ "Form D: Notice of Sale of Securities". US SEC. January 29, 2003. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  2. ↑ "Private is the new black". itweb.co.za. 2016-06-10.
  3. ↑ "Messaging Handbook" (PDF). Riverbed.com. 2015-01-01.
  4. ↑ "Symbol Lookup from Yahoo Finance".
  5. ↑ "Tenant Profile Manager". Research Park, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  6. ↑ "Elliott Boosts Offer to Acquire Riverbed to $3.36 Billion". Bloomberg Technology. February 25, 2014.
  7. ↑ "NetApp buys Riverbed's Steelstore business".
  8. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named thomabravo
  9. ↑ https://thomabravo.com/2015/04/24/thoma-bravo-completes-acquisition-of-riverbed-technology/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ "Riverbed Announces Retirement of Co-Founder and CEO Jerry M. Kennelly; Appoints Paul Mountford as CEO". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  11. ↑ https://www.riverbed.com/press-releases/riverbed-strengthens-and-expands-enterprise-sd-wan-market-presence-signs-strategic-global-oem-agreement-with-versa-networks.html. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ "Cambium Networks Buys Xirrus Portfolio from Riverbed Technology". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  13. ↑ "Riverbed Names Rich McBee as New President and CEO". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  14. ↑ "Riverbed Appoints Dan Smoot as President and CEO to Drive Next Phase of Growth". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  15. ↑ "Riverbed Aternity recapitalization complete, clears debts and brings in $100 million of new cash".
  16. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named vector

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