please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . april 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message riverbed technology inc type private traded as formerly nasdaq rvbd industry information technology services founded may 23 2002 headquarters san francisco california united states products wan optimization application performance management revenue us 1.04 billion 2013 1 operating income us 8.59 million 2013 1 net income us 12.41 million 2013 1 total assets us 1.9 billion 2013 1 total equity us 828.64 million 2013 2 owner thoma bravo teachers private capital number of employees 2 556 december 2013 1 website www.riverbed.com riverbed technology inc. is an american it company that develops products to improve application performance across wans a technique known as wan optimization . its products reduce latency and bandwidth constraints in delivering applications via wans to multiple locations across long distances . it also develops products to support network and application performance management . riverbed has its headquarters in san francisco ca and more than 2 500 employees in 73 offices around the world . citation needed the company s 25 000 customers include 97 % of both the fortune 100 and the forbes global 100 . citation needed in december 2014 the company agreed to be acquired by private equity investment firm thoma bravo 3 and the transaction was completed in april 2015 . 4 contents 1 history 2 acquisitions 3 products and services 3.1 application performance platform 3.2 steelcentral performance management 3.3 steelhead optimization visibility and control for wans 3.4 steelhead plus steelcentral optimization visibility and control for the hybrid enterprise 3.5 steelfusion branch converged infrastructure 3.6 steelscript app performance infrastructure 3.7 partnerships 4 legal proceedings 4.1 silver peak systems 4.2 zeus technology limited 5 media and awards 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit jerry kennelly ceo and steve mccanne cto founded a technology company on may 23 2002 . citation needed originally named nbt next big thing technology the company became riverbed technology in 2003 . citation needed kennelly and mccanne led internal development of the first steelhead appliances the 500 1000 2000 and 5000 models and the first steelhead shipped in april 2004 to environment canada . citation needed riverbed stock began trading on nasdaq september 21 2006 . 5 in february 2014 the us hedge fund elliott management corporation made a 3.36 billion offer to acquire riverbed . 6 in october 2014 zdnet reported netapp s acquisition of riverbed technology s steelstore line of data backup and protection products 7 which netapp later renamed as altavault . 8 on december 15 2014 riverbed announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by the private equity investment firm thoma bravo . the deal closed in april 2015 . 9 riverbed has opened up an off site location at research park university of illinois at urbana champaign in order to take advantage of high caliber talent . citation needed acquisitions edit on february 20 2009 riverbed completed the acquisition of mazu networks . the mazu products which were initially renamed cascade and in 2014 became part of riverbed steelcentral analyze network traffic to provide information about the interactions of and dependencies between users applications and systems . this acquisition enabled riverbed to add it infrastructure performance solutions to its product portfolio . 10 on october 21 2010 riverbed acquired cace technologies and folded its shark network analysis product and pilot interface product into the riverbed cascade product suite . cace was also the corporate sponsor of the open source network protocol analyzer product wireshark . riverbed has assumed corporate sponsorship . 11 in november 2010 riverbed acquired global protocols llc a provider of satellite optimization to the defense marketplace . global protocols is known for its skipware product a proprietary commercial implementation of the space communications protocol specifications scps which is used in most us department of defense communications satellites . 12 on july 19 2011 riverbed acquired zeus technology a provider of high performance software based load balancing and traffic management solutions for virtual and cloud environments . its primary product was the zeus virtual application delivery controller vadc which evolved into riverbed steelapp . 13 brocade announced its intent to acquire the riverbed steelapp business in february 2015 which is expected to close in q1 2015 . 14 on july 19 2011 riverbed acquired aptimize limited a provider of web content optimization technology based in wellington new zealand . 15 on january 11 2012 riverbed purchased certain assets of expand networks including its intellectual property out of liquidation in israel . 16 in december 2012 riverbed acquired opnet technologies for 1 billion . opnet based in bethesda md provided performance analysis software for applications and networks solutions which have evolved into riverbed steelcentral . 17 18 19 20 on december 15 2014 riverbed announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by leading private equity investment firm thoma bravo llc and teachers private capital the private investor department of ontario teachers pension plan . under the terms of the agreement riverbed stockholders will receive 21.00 per share in cash or a total of approximately 3.6 billion . 3 products and services edit application performance platform edit the riverbed application performance platform is a set of integrated solutions for delivering controlling and optimizing it resources across an enterprise s onsite and cloud computing resources known as the hybrid enterprise . the riverbed application performance platform comprises three software solutions riverbed steelcentral riverbed steelhead and riverbed steelfusion . these solutions can be delivered as appliances software or services . in addition open apis and developer tools called riverbed steelscript are part of each platform component to facilitate programmability interoperability and intelligence across the riverbed platform and partner ecosystem . steelcentral performance management edit riverbed steelcentral solution is designed to provide enterprise class end user application and network performance management . the performance management and control suite combines user experience application and network performance management to provide the visibility needed to diagnose and cure issues before end users notice a problem . steelcentral delivers visibility analytics and insight to reduce the time and effort required to develop and deploy applications and to ensure quality performance . citation needed steelhead optimization visibility and control for wans edit riverbed s steelhead solution is designed to ensure optimal performance of applications between data centers branch locations cloud networks and end users . riverbed steelhead is a bookend technology in which one steelhead sits at a data center and another at a branch office to speed up the connection between the two sites . steelhead works with any wan because it sits behind routers which have a wan at each end . the worse the wan performance and the further the distance between the locations it connects the bigger the improvement steelhead has on performance . citation needed riverbed s steelhead solution is designed to help it departments ensure service levels for applications among data centers branch locations cloud networks and end users . steelhead is also designed to allow it departments to prioritize delivery of mission critical applications over the best available network with customized per application service level agreements slas . steelhead pioneered wan optimization in 2004 citation needed with innovations for application transport and data streamlining across the wan and internet to deliver a good end user experience regardless of location while reducing network bandwidth costs . steelhead plus steelcentral optimization visibility and control for the hybrid enterprise edit with steelhead 9.0 and steelcentral appresponse 9.5 announced 21 in november 2014 riverbed introduced tighter integration between its wan optimization and application performance management solutions . with steelhead appliances feeding application and network performance telemetry to steelcentral for analysis enterprises can combine acceleration and performance management to gain visibility across on premises cloud and saas apps . steelhead 9.0 optimizes automates and secures delivery of any application over hybrid networks while appresponse 9.5 monitors and troubleshoots end user experience for optimized saas apps . this combination provides visibility from the data center to the cloud . steelfusion branch converged infrastructure edit riverbed steelfusion is a branch converged infrastructure solution that centralizes data in the data center and delivers local performance with instant recovery at the branch . steelfusion consolidates branch servers storage networking and virtualization infrastructure into a single solution while expediting branch office provisioning backup and recovery . steelfusion is designed to ensure continuous operations when disasters occur from causes such as weather fire or accident . citation needed with steelfusion businesses can restore branch operations in a matter of minutes centrally protect and secure data in the data center and lower the total cost of ownership tco of branch and remote offices . citation needed steelscript app performance infrastructure edit riverbed s steelscript product is designed to enable developers to automate and customize the riverbed application performance platform with open apis and developer tools that allow the program systems and organizations to work together interoperability . partnerships edit the riverbed ecosystem spans approximately 3 000 partners worldwide including technology resellers distributors service providers and integrators . riverbed has strategic alliances with firms such as accenture at & t amazon bt emc hp ibm microsoft ntt 22 orange business services singtel verizon and vmware . citation needed legal proceedings edit silver peak systems edit on june 1 2011 riverbed served silver peak systems inc. with a lawsuit filed in the united states district court for the district of delaware alleging infringement of certain patents . the lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and injunctive relief . on july 22 2011 silver peak systems denied the allegations and requested declaratory judgments of invalidity and non infringement . on august 17 2011 silver peak systems amended its counterclaims against riverbed alleging infringement by riverbed of three u.s. patents 7 630 295 titled network device continuity ; 7 945 736 titled dynamic load management of network memory ; and 7 948 921 titled automatic network optimization . the patents purport to cover certain features offered on the riverbed steelhead products . silver peak seeks unspecified damages and a permanent injunction prohibiting riverbed from offering those features . on september 20 2011 riverbed denied silver peak systems allegations and requested declaratory judgments of invalidity and non infringement . on december 21 2011 riverbed amended its lawsuit against silver peak systems to allege infringement of an additional patent . citation needed trial of riverbed s claims against silver peak systems is currently stayed pending a separate u.s. patent and trademark office proceeding . in anticipation of the trial of silver peak systems claims against riverbed the court issued a partial summary judgment finding of direct infringement of u.s. patent number 7 948 921 but reserved for trial a number of additional factors that have yet to be proved but are required for a verdict of infringement and has not yet addressed the validity of that patent . citation needed on june 28 2013 riverbed served silver peak systems with an additional lawsuit filed in the united states district court for the northern district of california alleging infringement of two patents that are not covered by the lawsuit in delaware . the california lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and injunctive relief . citation needed on july 22 2013 silver peak systems denied the allegations and requested declaratory judgments of invalidity and non infringement . on august 12 2013