F5 Networks announced on Monday (March.11th) that it will acquire Nginx, the company behind eponymous open source web server, for a value of around $670m (£508m).
F5 Networks said the deal would “bridge NetOps and DevOps,” and “enable multi-cloud application services across all environments, providing the ease-of-use and flexibility developers require while also delivering the scale, security, reliability, and enterprise readiness network operations teams demand.”
The original open source product was originally created by Igor Sysoev back in 2002 and open-sourced in 2004.
Acquisition
Nginx CEO Gus Robertson said in an open letter that “our vision and mission don’t change” with the deal.
“We’re still helping companies on their journey to microservices. What does change is our trajectory. F5 shares our mission, vision, and values. But they bring to bear a tremendous amount of additional resources and complementary technologies.”
“F5 is committed to keeping the Nginx brand and open source technology alive,” he continued. “Without this commitment, the deal wouldn’t have happened for either side.”
In a statement, François Locoh-Donou, president and CEO of F5, said: “By bringing F5’s world-class application security and rich application services portfolio for improving performance, availability, and management together with Nginx’s leading software application delivery and API management solutions, unparalleled credibility and brand recognition in the DevOps community, and massive open source user base, we bridge the divide between NetOps and DevOps with consistent application services across an enterprise’s multi-cloud environment.”
F5 Networks said the deal would “enhance Nginx’s current offerings with F5 security solutions and will integrate F5 cloud-native innovations with Nginx’s software load balancing technology, accelerating F5’s time to market of application services for modern, containerised applications.”
Mission
The company plans to maintain the Nginx brand, and the unit will be managed by Nginx CEO Gus Robertson and founders Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov.
“Nginx and F5 share the same mission and vision. We both believe applications are at the heart of driving digital transformation. And we both believe that an end-to-end application infrastructure—one that spans from code to customer—is needed to deliver apps across a multi-cloud environment,” said Robertson, in a statement.
“I’m excited to continue this journey by adding the power of Nginx’s open source innovation to F5’s ADC leadership and enterprise reach. F5 gains depth with solutions designed for DevOps, while Nginx gains breadth with access to tens of thousands of customers and partners.”
