Citrix Systems, Inc., has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Net6 Inc. The all-cash transaction is valued at approximately $50 million and is expected to close in Q4 of this year.
According to a press release announcing the acquisition, the Net6 deal gives Citrix:
• An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Access Gateway — a secure, always-on, single point-of-access that’s simple and cost-effective to deploy and is complementary to the existing Citrix access infrastructure portfolio;
• An Application Gateway and Voice Office Suite — proven products to tap the rapidly growing IP telephony and VoIP access markets; and,
• New competencies and domain experience in network appliances, application user interface transformation and VoIP technologies.
“This is an exciting day for Citrix customers and partners,” said Mark Templeton, president and CEO for Citrix. “This acquisition consolidates our leadership role in the access infrastructure market, simplifies access and access security, and gives us an opportunity to tap the potential of IP voice applications on IP telephones. With Net6, we’ll be able to provide a single point of access from any device to any IT resource over an SSL secure connection, providing on-demand access to both voice and data across virtually any screen size, device type and location.
“We’re making the last mile of computing secure, simple for users and adaptable to almost any access scenario. Only Citrix can do this.”
Net6’s Application Gateway and Voice Office Application Suite deliver productivity applications to users of IP telephones and mobile devices. The Net6 Voice Office Application Suite enables enterprises to further leverage their IP telephony investment and increase workforce productivity by delivering converged applications to the screens and speakers of IP telephones. The Application Gateway delivers applications to users of IP telephones from leading IP PBX vendors including Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, NEC, Nortel Networks and Siemens.
Templeton said the combination of Citrix and Net6 technologies will enable the creation of an unrivaled end-to-end access infrastructure system that converges voice, data and applications. The combined technologies could support several different types of user scenarios. For example:
• The Ultimate Mobile Office: A notebook, desktop or tablet PC user could incorporate a soft phone, local applications, on-demand collaborative applications and services on a desktop and use them regardless of physical location;
• The Virtual Organization: A branch office or call center user could use a desktop or thin client terminal with soft phone support, access to terminal emulator applications and other hosted applications, customer relationship manager applications and e-mail.
With the SSL Access Gateway serving as a single entry point, these services and resources can be accessed securely by a wide range of devices including IP phones and soft phones, simply and cost-efficiently.
“Businesses today are trying to manage access to their IT resources across several dimensions,” said Templeton. “They have to factor in all the different network scenarios, such as wired or wireless, trusted or untrusted, public or private; the type of devices being used, such as IP phones, PDAs or notebooks, managed or unmanaged, trusted or untrusted.
“It is a complex problem that, until now, has been solved with various tactical and ad-hoc solutions. Our new approach, which regards voice as a data type, will enable a common, single gateway to accommodate application, data and voice application access needs simply and cost effectively.”
Under terms of the definitive agreement, Citrix will acquire Net6 for approximately $50 million, payable in cash. Assuming the transaction closes as expected, the transaction will result in approximately a $1 to $3 million expense charge for in-process research and development in the fourth quarter, which equates to approximately $0.01 per share.
The acquisition is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2004. Net6 will continue to operate in San Jose, Calif., led by Murli Thirumale reporting to Mark Templeton.
