News
NetIQ, WebTrends Merge
- By Scott Bekker
- January 17, 2001
Two network
management companies, NetIQ and WebTrends, have decided to merge.
NetIQ Corp. and
WebTrends Corp. said this morning that
they would merge, forming a larger NetIQ.
“There was
a tremendous opportunity to bring together two market leading companies,” says
Eli Shapira, CEIO at WebTrends. To date, NetIQ has focused primarily on
low-level network management, while WebTrends’ competency has been web
application monitoring and management.
Rick
Pleczko, vice president of marketing at NetIQ, uses a networking analogy to
explain NetIQ’s decision to merge with WebTrends, “Our next step was to move up
the stack a little,” he says, suggesting its next opportunity was higher-level
management. Shapira agrees, saying “[Network Management] really has to start
diving into the information directed through the ebusiness infrastructre.”
Pleczko
says that customers can expect some integration between the combined company’s
product lines. In addition, the new company will enter the security management
by combining products orphaned at the old companies. NetIQ will combine its
intrusion detection and low-level security products with firewall management
products from WebTrends for a complete security suite.
WebTrends
offers products for Windows, Solaris, and the RedHat Linux flavors, lending
cross-platform experience to the new NetIQ. Although NetIQ’s experience lays
primarily in managing Windows networks, its recent agreement with Microsoft
compels the company to begin managing other platforms. Shapira says that the
merger will make this task easier, “We have tremendous opportunity to extend
our penetration into hetereogenous platforms.”
Shapira
says that WebTrends is a good fit for NetIQ, beyond product integration. “We
found amazing synergies between our two cultures,” he says, “we’re both
customer-driven companies.”
The merger
is valued at approximately $1billion, with NetIQ shareholders retaining 76% of
the combined company. Pending Security and Exchange Commision and shareholder
approval, the merger is expected to be complete late in the first quarter,
2001. – Christopher McConnell
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.