Blue Coat to Acquire Packeteer for WAN Optimization

Blue Coat Systems agreed to acquire Packeteer, a provider of WAN optimization and WAN traffic prioritization technologies, for $7.10 per share in cash, or approximately $268 million.


Packeteer is a pioneer in network traffic prioritization and shaping and holds an extensive patent portfolio in these areas. Its technologies enable the identification of specific applications over the WAN. The company is based in Cupertino, California.


Blue Coat supplies a family of appliances and client-based solutions -- deployed in branch offices, Internet gateways, end points, and data centers -- provide intelligent points of policy-based control for security and for application acceleration. Blue Coat plans to to incorporate key Packeteer technologies into is ProxySG family of appliances to provide increased application understanding and traffic prioritization capabilities. The acquisition will also add revenue from the sales, support and development of the PacketShaper product, and provide and increased penetration of the WAN optimization market.


Blue Coat expects the acquisition will be accretive on a non-GAAP basis in the second full quarter of combined operations. Blue Coat will fund the acquisition through a combination of available cash and an $80 million convertible notes financing. Blue Coat is based in Sunnyvale, California.


"WAN optimization is the starting point for adding the next layer of intelligence to the corporate network," said Brian NeSmith, president and chief executive officer, Blue Coat Systems. "The acquisition of Packeteer will enable us to extend our leadership in solving branch office application performance challenges and addressing security threats by adding an extensive, experienced sales channel, integrating our sales organizations and by reinvigorating the well-regarded PacketShaper product and adding it to our solution set. At the same time, we will begin to aggressively integrate Packeteer technologies with our own to continue building the next critical layer above the router."http://www.bluecoat.comhttp://www.packeteer.com