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17 Nov 2009
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Rumours that Riverbed is in advanced talks to acquire WAN optimisation rival Expand Networks has divided channel opinion.
According to Israeli daily Globes, US-based Riverbed is in negotiations to buy its smaller Israel-based competitor for between $30m (£18m) and $40m.
This would represent the second big union in the WAN optimisation space in recent months, following Blue Coat’s acquisition of Packeteer last June. Expand is believed to have approached other potential buyers.
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But Scott Dobson, chief executive of Expand distributor Cloud Distribution, claimed that Riverbed and Expand are a good match.
“It would be a good fit and it wouldn’t surprise me,” he said. “Expand does the whole virtual desktop infrastructure, Citrix and server consolidation piece really well, and Riverbed doesn’t. And Riverbed is the leader in the WAFS and TCP world.”
James Hall, marketing director at Riverbed Diamond partner Teneo, said the prospect of another merger in the WAN optimisation space was proof of the market’s growing maturity.
“This rubber-stamps the fact that this is a buoyant technology market,” he said.
However, he added: “It is not immediately apparent what Expand would bring to the table. Expand comes from a compression background and is strong with Citrix. But Riverbed’s new RIOS 6 operating system focuses on optimising Citrix traffic.
“We would need to investigate further to see what the positives are.”
According to information from IVC Online reported by Globes, Expand has raised $85m since it was founded, meaning its investors are unlikely to earn their money back in any deal.
Riverbed’s EMEA vice president Marcus Chambers said he wasn’t in a position to comment on the story. Neither vendor was able to comment for the Globes report.
Expand's vice president of corporate sales and marketing Adam Davison, also refused to comment on the rumour. However, Davison claimed the vendor had made strong headway over the past 12 months having been highlighted as a leading technology by both Gartner and Forrester.
"We are certainly moving and shaking in the market and doing a lot of things right," he said.
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It'd be great..
... to see anyone cited in this article that didn't have a financial tie to either of the vendors, and the assertion that Riverbed "leads" in TCP couldn't be a more vague statement. While positives abound such as the gain in support for better optimization of virtualized traffic, Riverbed would end up with a good deal of redundant and non-complimentary technology.
Posted by Chris Silva | 19 Nov 2009
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