ネットワークトラフィック管理の業界で、企業の整理統合が進んでいる。具体的にはディープパケットインスペクション(deep-packet inspection, DPI)と呼ばれるデータフィルタリングの世界だ。中でも今日は、キャリアにポリシー執行サービスを提供しているカリフォルニア州Fremontの公開企業Procera Networksが、カナダのDPI専門企業Vineyard Networksを買収することになった。買収価額は2800万カナダドル、内C$15.4MはProceraの普通株、C$12.6Mはキャッシュで支払われる。
DPI技術を手にしたことによってProceraは、同社のサービスを一般企業顧客にも提供できるようになる。Vineyardは企業顧客が中心だ。
またこれは、キャリアや大企業においてDPIへの投資が成長しつつ持続していることの表れでもある。Proceraによれば、インターネットのトラフィックの増加に伴って、一部のネットワークでは毎秒100万セッションという天井にぶつかり、同時アクティブセッション数は億のオーダーに達しようとしている。DPIはネットワークの利用状況の分析を助け、ひいては、より最適な料金体系の確立に資する。
いちばん分かりやすい例は、ブロードバンドサービスの流量の測定だ。そしてそれは、従量制課金の根拠になったりもする。とりわけ、ビデオのような帯域を酷使するサービスは、課金方式をほかのサービスとは変えるべきである、という説もある。そしてこれらの諸説が、いわゆるネットの中立性(net neutrality)の議論に行き着く。
DPIはスパムやウィルスなど、悪質なネットワークトラフィックの監視にも利用される。
その受益者は、消費者と企業の両方だ。企業は、オンラインビデオ会議に代表されるような高品質なサービスを求めることが多く、また世界各地の、今後ますます多くの社員たちが、等しく信頼性とセキュリティの良好な接続を利用できることを求める。そこで、ネットワークの、ユーザ側から見た品質を高めるために、DPIとその結果に基づくソフトウェア等の操作や調整が利用されることもある。
Vineyardは社員数わずか34名、技術者集団のような小さな企業だが、全員がProceraに加わることになる。Proceraによると、この買収によって同社の今年の年商は400万ドルから500万ドルは増加する、と信じられている。
以下は、プレスリリースの全文だ。
[以下英文ママ]
Procera Networks to Acquire Vineyard Networks
Acquisition broadens addressable market into enterprise through OEM channel
FREMONT, Calif., January 7, 2013— Procera Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: PKT), the global intelligent policy enforcement company, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Vineyard Networks Inc., a leader in the Enterprise OEM DPI market. The acquisition will enable Procera to extend its Intelligent Policy Enforcement business into the growing Enterprise DPI market.
Procera believes that network intelligence technology is foundational for networks of the future. James Brear, Procera’s President and CEO, said: “Every network element will require intelligence. Our strategic vision is to enable networks of any size to have the intelligence needed to operate effectively. Procera directly addresses this need for service providers of all types through our PacketLogic solutions. Vineyard enables Procera to expand our total addressable market through their OEM business to include enterprise network equipment vendors, adding the entire enterprise space along with additional opportunities in the service provider OEM market. The addition of Vineyard, which has 34 employees mostly in engineering and product development, establishes Procera as the clear leader in the high-growth DPI market.”
“Procera and Vineyard have natural synergies,” said Jason Richards, Vineyard’s CEO. “Vineyard’s leadership in Enterprise DPI combined with Procera’s industry-leading suite of PacketLogic products provides customers and partners with a single solution for Intelligence, Analytics and Enforcement.”
The growing use of Software Defined Networking, cloud services and storage, as well as the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) trend for consumer and enterprise, has blurred the line between enterprise and service provider networks. Consumer, enterprise and service provider network operators are searching for solutions that provide better visibility and control in an ever-changing landscape of applications, content owners and content-delivery networks. Existing network solutions that do not have sophisticated network intelligence cannot effectively meet the Quality of Experience expectations of broadband subscribers. “Powered by Procera” solutions will deliver superior visibility and enable a variety of use cases. Procera believes that its combination with Vineyard will create a new force in the DPI market for Service Providers and Enterprises. The total addressable market (TAM) for the Enterprise OEM DPI market is expected to be over $300 million in 2013.
The total consideration for the acquisition is $28.0 million CAD, comprised of $15.4 million CAD in Procera common stock and $12.6 million CAD in cash. The acquisition is subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions, and is expected to close on or before January 15, 2013.
Outlook
Subject to closing, Procera expects to realize meaningful bookings, revenue and operating scale from the acquisition. On a non-GAAP basis, excluding stock-based compensation expenses and amortization of acquired intangible assets, management currently expects the following:
- Vineyard is expected to add approximately $4 million to $5 million to Procera’s 2013 revenue, with gross margin in excess of 90%.
- Including one-time, non-cash purchase accounting adjustments, the acquisition is expected to be slightly dilutive to Procera’s 2013 EPS; without these adjustments the acquisition would have been expected to be EPS neutral in 2013.
- The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Procera’s 2014 EPS on a non-GAAP basis.
Procera has not provided a reconciliation of forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures to the directly comparable GAAP measures because, due primarily to variability and difficulty in making accurate forecasts and projections, not all of the information necessary for a quantitative reconciliation is available to the company without unreasonable efforts.
On a GAAP basis, Procera expects to record significant quarterly operating charges for the amortization of intangible assets and compensation following the allocation of the purchase price.
