News
Extreme Networks to Acquire Aerohive Networks
June 2019 by Marc Jacob
Extreme Networks, Inc. and Aerohive Networks announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Extreme will acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Aerohive at a price of $4.45 per share in cash, representing an implied, fully diluted equity value of approximately $269 million. Accounting for Aerohive’s net cash balance of $62 million at the end of March, the deal is equivalent to an enterprise value of $207 million. The acquisition of Aerohive will add critical cloud management and edge capabilities to Extreme’s portfolio of end-to-end, edge to cloud networking solutions. It will provide a strong subscription revenue stream and strengthen Extreme’s position in wireless LAN at a critical technology transition to Wi-Fi 6. Extreme expects the acquisition to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share starting in fiscal year 2020.
Aerohive is a specialize in cloud management, AI and machine learning. It was among the first companies to offer controller-less Wi-Fi and cloud network management, including cloud-managed Wi-Fi and network access control (NAC), and today is the second leading provider of Cloud Managed Wireless LAN Services¹. It recently delivered the industry’s first trio of Wi-Fi 6 access points, along with the industry’s first pluggable access point. Aerohive has a global footprint of 30,000 cloud wireless LAN customers in verticals including education, healthcare, state and local government, and retail. This acquisition will bring new automation and intelligence capabilities to Extreme’s Elements portfolio. It will expand Extreme’s technology leadership in Wi-Fi and NAC, adding cloud-managed Wi-Fi and NAC solutions to complement its on-premises Wi-Fi and NAC technology, driving Extreme deeper into key verticals and presenting numerous opportunities for cross-sell and up-sell within the combined portfolios.
Extreme expects to gain new SD-WAN capabilities, in all expanding its total addressable market by a total of $1B in a market with a CAGR of 19% 2019 through 2022.² At a time when many of Extreme’s customers and partners are turning toward as-a-service/subscription models to reduce costs and gain efficiencies, Aerohive will expand Extreme’s mix of revenues to approximately 30% from subscription recurring revenue.
With Aerohive, Extreme will offer customers and partners more choices for cloud and on-premises wired and wireless technology, and an industry-leading solution for cloud-based network management – all from a single vendor and backed by its award-winning, insourced services and support team. Post-acquisition, customers and partners of Extreme and Aerohive will be able to mix and match a broader array of software, hardware, and services Elements to create networks that support their unique needs and that may be managed and automated from end-to-end – from the enterprise edge to the cloud – to advance their digital transformation efforts.
¹Cloud-Managed Networking Market Report – 2019, June 6, 2019, IHS Markit
²Worldwide SD-WAN Infrastructure Forecast, 2018–2022, August 2018, IDC
