Cobalt Networks

Last updated
Cobalt Networks, Inc.
Founded1996;28 years ago (1996)
FounderVivek Mehra
DefunctDecember 7, 2000;23 years ago (2000-12-07)
FateAcquired by Sun Microsystems
Headquarters Mountain View, California
RevenueIncrease2.svg $22 million (1999)
Decrease2.svg -$23 million (1999)
Total assets Increase2.svg $151 million (1999)
Total equity Increase2.svg $130 million (1999)
Number of employees
140 (1999)
Footnotes /references
[1]
Cobalt RaQ 2 Cobalt RaQ2 Debian.jpg
Cobalt RaQ 2
Cobalt Qube - a computer server appliance Cobalt Qube 3 Front.jpg
Cobalt Qube - a computer server appliance

Cobalt Networks was a maker of low-cost Linux-based servers and server appliances based in Mountain View, California. The company had 1,900 end user customers in more than 70 countries. [1]

During the dot-com bubble, the company had a market capitalization of $6 billion despite only $22 million in annual revenue.

In 2000, the company was acquired by Sun Microsystems and in December 2003, Sun shut down the Cobalt product line. [2]

Cobalt was considered a pioneering server appliance vendor, the first to market a 1  RU rackmounted server, and was credited by the founder of RLX Technologies as paving the way for blade servers. [2]

History

The company was founded in 1996 by Vivek Mehra as Cobalt Microserver. In June 1998, the company changed its name to Cobalt Networks, Inc. [3]

The company introduced products as follows: [1]

ProductLaunch date
Cobalt Qube March 1998
Cobalt CacheJuly 1998
Cobalt RaQ September 1998
Cobalt NASApril 1999
Cobalt Management ConsoleOctober 1999

On November 5, 1999, the company became a public company via an initial public offering. Its stock price rose as much as 618% above its $22/share initial price. [4]

On March 23, 2000, the company announced the acquisition of Chilisoft from Charlie Crystle for 1.15 million shares of Cobalt common stock, then valued at $69.9 million. [5] [6]

In September 2000, Sun Microsystems announced the acquisition of the company for $2 billion in stock. [7] The acquisition was completed on December 7, 2000.

Many disgruntled engineers left the company in the months following the acquisition. [8]

In December 2003, Sun shut down the Cobalt product line. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Commerce One, Inc. 2000 Form 10-K Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  2. 1 2 3 Vance, Ashlee (December 18, 2003). "Sun drives the final nail in Cobalt's coffin". The Register .
  3. "Company Overview of Cobalt Networks, Inc". Bloomberg L.P.
  4. "Cobalt IPO rockets". CNN . November 5, 1999.
  5. "COBALT NETWORKS IS BUYING CHILISOFT FOR $70 MILLION" . The New York Times . Dow Jones & Company. March 24, 2000.
  6. Uimonen, Terho (March 23, 2000). "Cobalt to Acquire Chili Soft in $70M Deal". Computerworld . Archived from the original on 2018-05-06.
  7. FISHER, LAWRENCE M. (September 20, 2000). "Sun Microsystems to Acquire Cobalt for $2 Billion in Stock". The New York Times .
  8. Loney, Matt (January 5, 2004). "How to blow a billion--or two". ZDNet .