Citrix Acquires NetScaler
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Citrix Systems, Inc., the global leader in access infrastructure solutions, today announced it has completed the acquisition of privately held NetScaler Inc., a global leader in high-performance application networking. The transaction is valued at approximately $300 million in cash and stock and includes the assumption of approximately $23 million in unvested stock options.
This acquisition strengthens Citrix's customer value proposition by improving the performance of any application delivered through the Citrix Access Platform, the industry's most complete and integrated system that seamlessly connects users, devices, and networks to enterprise resources. NetScaler accelerates the performance of Web browser-based applications and e-commerce and consumer Web sites by as much as 15 times.(a) NetScaler technologies will enhance the Citrix Access Platform by significantly improving application security, manageability, reliability, and availability of any application while lowering the cost of operations.
"With this acquisition, we are extending our best access experience value to the entire range of Web-based applications, including enterprise, browser-based, XML Web services, and others," said Mark Templeton, president and chief executive officer for Citrix.
"With the addition of the Citrix NetScaler Application Accelerator and Application Switch, the Citrix Access Platform can significantly optimize the customer's entire set of client/server, Web, desktop, or legacy enterprise resources. This reduces their IT costs through increased server scalability and availability, reduced back-end server loads, and increased network bandwidth efficiency, all while increasing user satisfaction and productivity."
NetScaler, with approximately 200 employees, including research and development teams in Silicon Valley and India, will continue to operate from San Jose, Calif., as the Application Networking Group of Citrix. B.V. Jagadeesh, previously president and chief executive officer for NetScaler, will now report to Mark Templeton as group vice president and general manager.
In early 2003, Citrix outlined a strategy to expand its coverage of the overall Access Infrastructure category by penetrating into adjacent high-growth markets such as collaboration and VPN. Since that time, Citrix has completed three acquisitions of best-of-breed companies. In 2004, Citrix acquired Expertcity, now the Online Group, moving the company into the real-time collaboration, desktop access and on-demand assistance market segments. Citrix also acquired Net6, now the Gateways Group, extending Citrix's reach in the SSL VPN (secure socket layer virtual private network) and IP (internet protocol) telephony market segments. NetScaler is the latest acquisition, adding innovative application networking technologies, including application acceleration & optimization; application traffic management, and application security. These technologies will allow end users to access enterprise resources faster; they'll improve the service levels that IT departments provide to the organizations they support; and they'll increase agility for businesses that run on the Citrix Access Platform.
About CitrixCitrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS) is the global leader in access infrastructure and the most trusted name in secure access. More than 160,000 organizations around the world use the Citrix Access Platform to provide secure, well-managed access to business information wherever it lives - on demand. Citrix customers include 100% of the Fortune 100 companies, 99% of the Fortune 500 and 97% of the Fortune Global 500, as well as hundreds of thousands of smaller businesses and individuals. Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Citrix has offices in 22 countries and approximately 6,200 channel and alliance partners in more than 100 countries. For more information visit
http://www.citrix.com.
