Intel To Acquire IPivot In $500 Million Transaction
Company Boosts Presence in New, Fast Growing Market Segment for Internet Equipment
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 5, 1999 - Intel Corporation today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held IPivot, Inc. in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $500 million. The acquisition is targeted at helping customers more securely and efficiently manage the huge volumes of Internet traffic generated by the explosive growth of e-commerce.
The Poway, Calif.-based IPivot designs and manufactures "Internet commerce equipment." Internet commerce equipment is a rapidly emerging product category comprised of special function devices that manage information crossing the Internet to help ensure faster, more efficient, more secure and more reliable transactions.
IPivot supplements Intel's network equipment expertise in switches, routers and servers with Internet commerce equipment designed to increase application availability and improve response times. The company's products help improve the performance of server farms, web sites and e-commerce applications. IPivot systems "intelligently" determine where data should be processed and send the request to servers that can deliver the best response time - reducing or eliminating the frustration of waiting for web pages to load on a computer screen. The company also provides key products that improve Internet performance by accelerating certain security functions.
"Customers will return to the e-commerce sites that deliver the best performance and service," said John Miner, vice president, Intel Communication Products Group. "Because information must always be available and response times instantaneous, new devices are needed to manage ever larger workloads securely and efficiently. IPivot's lineup of Internet commerce equipment, combined with our current communications product portfolio, help service providers meet these expectations."
IPivot marks Intel's third acquisition in the high growth Internet commerce equipment market segment. Intel gained expertise in building Internet commerce equipment for small businesses through its acquisition of Dayna Communications in 1997 and "virtual private network" capabilities through the purchase of Shiva Corporation last year. Today's acquisition is Intel's eighth networking and communications related acquisition overall this year.
"The opportunities created by the rapid growth of the Internet are huge," said Brett Helm, chief executive officer, IPivot. "The combination of Intel and IPivot helps bring those opportunities within reach and allows us to pursue our goal of industry leadership in these market segments."
Intel will sell IPivot Internet commerce equipment directly to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and through its Internet Service Provider (ISP) channel program. The Intel ISP program, announced earlier this year, is a worldwide channel initiative that provides Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Application Service Providers (ASPs), and value-added resellers (VARs) with a variety of Internet-tailored products and technologies sold by a dedicated channel sales and support team.
Upon completion of the acquisition, IPivot employees will be integrated into the Network Systems Division within Intel's Communication Products Group. Brett Helm will become general manager of the Commerce Equipment Operation reporting to Jim A. Johnson and Eric Fullerton, co-general managers of Intel's Network Systems Division.
Additional information about IPivot can be found at www.IPivot.com.
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
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