Fluke Networks says the definitive agreement made by Fluke Corp. to purchase Visual Networks, Inc. will help it expand its efforts to reach the managed services marketplace.
“They offer a complementary product to their customers, which provides vision to applications over the WAN,” says Dan Klimke, marketing manager for portable network analysis tools at Fluke Networks. “In that sense, it will broaden our ability to play a part of this managed services marketplace.”
Fluke Corp. (www.fluke.com), one of the Danaher Corp. (www.danaher.com) family of companies, has entered into the agreement to purchase Visual Networks (www.visualnetworks.com) for $1.83 per share, reflecting a total purchase price of approximately $75 million in cash that includes the transaction costs and net of estimated cash to be acquired.
The closing of the transaction is subject to Visual Networks’ shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary conditions. Visual Networks will become a part of Danaher’s Fluke Networks’ (www.flukenetworks.com) business.
Visual Networks, based in Rockville, MD, makes network test and application performance management solutions. The company’s technologies are designed to enable enterprises to reliably and securely manage the delivery and performance of applications, such as Voice over IP (VoIP), across their infrastructures.
Klimke says that Fluke Networks will leverage its position in other countries and expose Visual Networks to a far broader audience. More than 50 percent of Fluke Networks’ customers are from outside of the U.S. and have, so far, received little exposure to Visual Networks. “It is a fit in our LAN/WAN analysis solutions,” says Klimke, adding that Visual Networks has a strong position with service providers who reach enterprise networks with their managed service offerings.
Visual Networks’ products are designed to help enterprises manage network capacity. They also locate problems on networks and collect data about application performance and network security. The products can measure availability, delay, and bandwidth utilization, and are particularly well-suited for measuring performance at remote locations.
Fluke Networks, by comparison, manufactures testing, monitoring and analysis products for enterprise networks, with a view of looking from the data center outward. Klimke says this acquisition will bolster Fluke Networks’ product line in the enterprise arena. “This is not a new direction for Fluke Networks, but an amplification of the direction that we have been heading in for years,” says Klimke.
Specifically, Klimke says the acquisition will boost Fluke Networks’ position in the network and application analysis market, providing more benefits and capabilities to enterprise customers that manage their own networks or outsource to a managed service provider.
Klimke says Visual Networks also has two key products that will dovetail with Fluke Networks’ solutions: The Visual Uptime Select and the Visual IP InSight system and software.
Visual Uptime Select is designed to integrate the analysis of application performance with analysis of network performance. It lets IT departments take a holistic approach to network and application performance management.
The Visual IP InSight system is designed to provide a user-by-user view of connection performance on a remote network, leading to more efficient problem solving over the phone.
“You can place the instruments at any location in the network and manage them from a central console,” says Klimke.
He adds, “Visual can view a large installation consisting of thousands of remote sites, all aggregated on the console, for the analysis of remote office applications. That’s something our current product line can address, but in a different manner. Ours lacks the view from the client’s experience.”
-Brian MilliganQuick Facts...
•Fluke Corp. has entered into an agreement to purchase Visual Networks for $1.83 per share, reflecting a total purchase price of approximately $75 million in cash.
•The company hopes the acquisition will boost its presence in the network and application analysis market.
•Fluke is specifically interested in Visual Networks’ Visual Uptime Select and the Visual IP InSight network management system and software.