F5 acquires NGINX for $670M to move closer to open-source services and multi-cloud architecture

Multi-cloud architecture has become a huge trend in the business. In the wake of the opportunity, F5 Networks, a tech giant specializing in application services and application delivery networking has made a huge move. The company has acquired its competitor NGINX for $670 million. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, NGINX is a company known for its open source project trusted by more than 400 million sites.

NGINX had been looking for acquisition deals from companies, and the firm has been in news for a while for its acquisition. In fact, Citrix was also in the list of companies planning to acquire it amongst others. However, the deal fell flat on the price.

“F5’s acquisition of NGINX strengthens our growth trajectory by accelerating our software and multi-cloud transformation,” said François Locoh-Donou, President, and CEO of F5. F5 invested in the company’s software application delivery and API management solutionsto bridge the gap between NetOps and DevOpsacross an enterprise’s multi-cloud environment. F5 will combine its own operations with those of NGINX. Also, Gus Robertson, NGINX CEO and founders Maxim Konovalovand Igor Syosevwill be joining the companyonce the acquisition closes.

Even after the acquisition, the NGINX brand will still exist. Also, the company has planned to introduce integrations with F5's other security and application monitoring tools.

Last year, Goldman Sachs funded $43 millionto fuel the expansion of the company.