SolarWinds

SolarWinds Inc.
Private
Industry Software
Genre Network monitoring
Founded 1999 (1999) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Founders
  • Donald Yonce
  • David Yonce
Headquarters Austin, Texas, U.S.
Key people
 Kevin Thompson (CEO)
Products
  • Network Performance Monitor
  • Server & Application Monitor
  • Network Configuration Manager
  • Database Performance Analyzer
  • Log & Event Manager
  • Dameware
Revenue $504.1 million (2015)[1]
Number of employees
 Over 2,200 [2]
Website solarwinds.com

SolarWinds Inc. is a company that develops software for businesses to help manage their networks, systems, and information technology infrastructure. SolarWinds is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with sales and product development offices in a number of locations in the United States and several other countries around the world.[3] The company was publicly traded from May 2009 until the end of 2015. It has also acquired numerous companies in the last decade, some of which it still operates under their original brand names including Pingdom, Papertrail, and Loggly.[4]

History

SolarWinds was officially founded in 1999 in Tulsa, Oklahoma,[5][6] and has been profitable since its founding.[7] The company was co-founded by Donald Yonce (a former executive at Wal-Mart[8]) and his brother David Yonce.[9] SolarWinds released its first products, Trace Route and Ping Sweep, earlier in March 1998 and released its first web-based network performance monitoring application in November 2001.[10] According to Michael Bennett, who became the chief executive officer in 2006,[11] SolarWinds' name was chosen by an eccentric early employee and that the company has nothing to do with solar or wind power.[12] In 2006, the company moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas,[6] where about 300 of the company's total 450 employees were based as of 2011.[5]

During 2007, SolarWinds raised funding from Austin Ventures, Bain Capital, and Insight Venture Partners.[13][14] SolarWinds completed an initial public offering of $112.5 million in May 2009,[6] closing at higher prices after its initial day of trading.[12] The IPO from SolarWinds was followed by another from OpenTable (an online restaurant-reservation service), which was perceived to break a "dry spell" (caused by the Great Recession) in which very few companies went public.[15] Both Bain Capital and Insight Venture Partners backed the IPO and used the opportunity to sell some of their shares during the offering.[7]

Analysts and company executives forecasted continued expansion post-IPO, including numerous acquisitions.[16] The company has in fact grown rapidly post-IPO. In 2010, Bennett retired from his position as CEO and was replaced by the company's former chief financial officer Kevin Thompson.[6] In May 2013, SolarWinds announced plans to invest in an operations hub in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was named by Forbes as "Best Small Company in America, citing high-functioning products for low costs and impressive company growth." By 2013, SolarWinds was employing about 900 people.[17]

In October 2015, the company disclosed that it was in talks with a then-unnamed party interested in acquiring the company and making SolarWinds a privately held company again.[8][18] The company announced that it had hired J.P. Morgan and DLA Piper as financial and legal advisers on the possible deal.[19] An acquisition by the private equity technology investment firms Silver Lake Partners and Thoma Bravo, LLC. was announced in late 2015,[20][21] and by January 2016, SolarWinds was taken into private ownership in a $4.5 billion deal. As of the sale, the company employed 1,770 people worldwide of which 510 were based in Austin and reported revenues of about half a billion dollars a year.[1]

In November 2017, SolarWinds released AppOptics which integrates much of SolarWind's acquired software portfolio, including Librato and TraceView, into a single software-as-a-service package. AppOptics included compatibility with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.[22]

In September 2018, SolarWinds has filed for an IPO again, after three years of being owned by private equity firms.[23]

Acquisitions

According to The Wall Street Journal, SolarWinds offers freely downloadable software to potential clients and then markets more advanced software to them by offering trial versions.[24] Following the funding in 2007, SolarWinds acquired several companies including Neon Software and ipMonitor Corp. and opened a European sales office in Ireland.[25]

During and after its IPO in 2009, SolarWinds has acquired a number of other companies and products, including the acquisition of the New Zealand-based software maker Kiwi Enterprises, which was announced in January 2009.[26]

SolarWinds acquired several companies in 2011 and was ranked No. 10 on Forbes Magazine's list of fastest-growing tech companies.[27] In January 2011, it acquired Hyper9 Inc, an Austin-based virtualization management company with undisclosed terms.[28] In July, SolarWinds completed the acquisition of the Idaho-based network security company TriGeo for $35 million.[27][29] TriGeo's offices in Post Falls were added to the list of SolarWinds location which already included satellite offices in Dallas, Salt Lake City and Tulsa, as well as operations in Australia, the Czech Republic, India, Ireland, and Singapore.[30] In December, the company bought some assets from DameWare Development LLC.[31]

In early 2012, only about a month after acquiring DameWare, SolarWinds acquired the patch management software provider EminentWare.[32] In December, SolarWinds acquired RhinoSoft, adding the company's product FTP Voyager to SolarWinds suite of tools and services. The company made the File Transfer Protocol software available for free, forgoing the annual subscription license previously required to use the software.[33]

In May 2013, SolarWinds acquired N-able Technologies (2013), a cloud-based information technology services provider. The deal was reportedly valued $120 million in cash.[34] In October, it acquired the Boulder, Colorado-based database performance management company Confio Software. With the $103 million agreement, SolarWinds gained a sales office in London and Confio's main product, Ignite.[35] Between 2014 and 2015, the company acquired the Swedish web-monitoring company Pingdom,[36][37] the San Francisco-based metrics and monitoring company Librato (for $40 million),[38] and the log management service Papertrail (for $41 million).[39]

In January 2015, SolarWinds announced it's acquisition of Librato[40], a San Francisco based server and app monitoring company. Then in August 2015, SolarWinds acquired Capzure Technology, adding the company's MSP Manager software to N-able which SolarWinds previously acquired.[41]

In June 2016, SolarWinds acquired LogicNow, a rival remote monitoring software company. A new subsidiary SolarWinds MSP was formed by merging LogicNow and N-able Technologies. The company announced that the subsidiary will be led by LogicNow's former CEO Walter Scott with a new title of executive vice president.[42]

In August 2017, SolarWinds acquired SpamExperts[43], a cloud-based email security solutions company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Karla Wells, SolarWinds Communication Manager and PR Director, wrote that this integration will specifically benefit the products offered to SolarWinds MSP customers.

In January 2018, SolarWinds acquired Loggly, a cloud-based log management and analytics company based in San Francisco, California. [4]

In July 2018, Solarwinds acquired Trusted Metrics, a provider of real-time threat monitoring and management software. [44]

References

  1. 1 2 Rockwell, Lilly (February 5, 2016). "Austin software maker SolarWinds completes $4.5 billion sale". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  2. ↑ "About SolarWinds". Retrieved 2018-08-01.
  3. ↑ Lind, Treva (2011-09-22). "SolarWinds blows into Post Falls". Journal of Business. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  4. 1 2 Lardinois, Frederic (2018-01-08). "SolarWinds acquires log-monitoring service Loggly". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  5. 1 2 Harrell, Barry (2011-07-05). "Fast-growing Austin software maker Solarwinds acquires Idaho company". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Hawkins, Lori (2011-11-20). "SolarWinds keeps on growing". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  7. 1 2 Cowan, Lynn (2009-05-22). "Bright Start for SolarWinds Stock". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  8. 1 2 Baker, Liana B. (2015-10-09). "SolarWinds confirms it is exploring strategic alternatives". Reuters. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  9. ↑ Peterson-Withorn, Chase (2015-10-23). "Who Got Rich This Week: SolarWinds Founder Yonce's Fortune Jumps Due To $4.5 Billion Sale Agreement". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  10. ↑ "Corporate Fact Sheet" (PDF). SolarWinds. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-11-17. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  11. ↑ Denne, Scott (2009-05-20). "Q&A With Michael Bennett, CEO Of Hot IPO SolarWinds". WSJ. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  12. 1 2 Vance, Ashlee; Miller, Claire Cain (2009-05-20). "SolarWinds Beats Odds With Public Offering". Bits Blog. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  13. ↑ "SolarWinds raises $7.5M". Austin Business Journal. 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  14. ↑ Morrison, Chris (2009-01-06). "Is network management growing? SolarWinds picks up Kiwi Enterprises". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  15. ↑ Miller, Claire Cain (2009-05-21). "Investors Find an Appetite for Tech Offerings". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  16. ↑ Krause, Reinhardt (2014-11-26). "SolarWinds Acquisition Spree Expected To Keep Going". Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  17. ↑ Lee, Jasen (2013-05-09). "Tech firm to bring more than 1,000 jobs to Utah". Deseret News. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  18. ↑ Krause, Reinhardt (2015-10-09). "Add SolarWinds To Private Equity M&A Speculation". Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  19. ↑ Steele, Anne (2015-10-09). "SolarWinds to Explore Strategic Alternatives". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  20. ↑ Goliya, Kshitiz (2015-10-21). "Silver Lake, Thoma Bravo to take SolarWinds private in $4.5 billion deal". Reuters. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  21. ↑ Minaya, Ezequiel (2015-10-21). "SolarWinds to be Bought by Silver Lake, Thoma Bravo". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  22. ↑ Moozakis, Chuck (2017-11-21). "SolarWinds' AppOptics melds network device monitoring, app behavior". TechTarget. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  23. ↑ Assis, Claudia. "Software provider Solarwinds files for IPO". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2018-10-01.
  24. ↑ Cowan, Lynn (2009-05-22). "Bright Start for SolarWinds Stock". The Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  25. ↑ Cooter, Maxwell. "Solar Winds finally blows into Europe". Techworld. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  26. ↑ Dubie, Denise (2009-01-05). "SolarWinds acquires Kiwi Enterprises". Network World. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  27. 1 2 Harrell, Barry (2011-07-05). "Fast-growing Austin software maker Solarwinds acquires Idaho company". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  28. ↑ "SolarWinds acquires Hyper9". Austin Business Journal. 2011-01-19. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  29. ↑ Wauters, Robin (2011-06-23). "SolarWinds Buys Network Security Company TriGeo For $35 Million In Cash". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  30. ↑ Lind, Treva (2011-09-22). "SolarWinds blows into Post Falls". Spokane Journal. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  31. ↑ Wickman, Allie (2011-12-15). "SolarWinds Acquires DameWare Development for $40M". Benzinga. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  32. ↑ Mukhar, Nicholas (2012-02-02). "SolarWinds Acquires EminentWare for Patch Management Software". Channel Futures. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  33. ↑ Hay, Richard (2012-12-18). "RhinoSoft Acquired by SolarWinds – FTP Voyager Now Offered as Free Tool". WindowsObserver.com. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  34. ↑ Cai, Debbie (2013-05-21). "SolarWinds to Buy N-able Technologies for $120 Million". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  35. ↑ Associated Press (2013-10-07). "SolarWinds buys Confio Software for $103M". The Denver Post. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  36. ↑ Kobialka, Dan (2014-06-20). "SolarWinds Adds Pingdom to Its Performance Management Portfolio". Channel Futures. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  37. ↑ Hawkins, Lori (2014-06-18). "Austin-based SolarWinds acquires Stockholm-based company". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  38. ↑ "SolarWinds Expands Its Cloud Monitoring and Management Footprint With Acquisition of Librato". MarketWatch. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  39. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (2015-04-28). "SolarWinds Acquires Log Management Service Papertrail For $41M In Cash". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  40. ↑ Wells, Karla (2015-01-29). SolarWinds News Room [SOLARWINDS EXPANDS ITS CLOUD MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT FOOTPRINT WITH ACQUISITION OF LIBRATO SOLARWINDS EXPANDS ITS CLOUD MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT FOOTPRINT WITH ACQUISITION OF LIBRATO] Check |url= value (help). Retrieved 2018-07-16. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  41. ↑ Davis, Jessica (2015-08-24). "SolarWinds N-able to Roll Out Competitively Priced MSP Manager Platform". Channel Futures. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  42. ↑ Foye, Brendon (2016-06-02). "SolarWinds acquires LogicNow, creates new company". CRN Australia. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  43. ↑ Wells, Karla (2017-08-29). "SolarWinds MSP Acquires SpamExperts to Enhance its Growing Product Portfol". SolarWinds News Room. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  44. ↑ "SolarWinds acquires rusted Metrics, Adding Threat Monitoring and Management to Its IT Management Portfolio". 2018-07-10. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
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