Cobalt Networks

Last updated
Cobalt Networks, Inc.
Founded1996;27 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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sun Microsystems</span> American computer company, 1982–2010

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the Network File System (NFS), and SPARC microprocessors. Sun contributed significantly to the evolution of several key computing technologies, among them Unix, RISC processors, thin client computing, and virtualized computing. Notable Sun acquisitions include Cray Business Systems Division, Storagetek, and Innotek GmbH, creators of VirtualBox. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982. At its height, the Sun headquarters were in Santa Clara, California, on the former west campus of the Agnews Developmental Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon Graphics</span> Former American computing company

Silicon Graphics, Inc. was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and software. Founded in Mountain View, California in November 1981 by James Clark, its initial market was 3D graphics computer workstations, but its products, strategies and market positions developed significantly over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">3Com</span> Former American maker of computer network products

3Com Corporation was an American digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney and others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981. Metcalfe explained the name 3Com was a contraction of "Computer Communication Compatibility", with its focus on Ethernet technology that he had co-invented, which enabled the networking of computers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citrix Systems</span> American software company

Citrix Systems, Inc. is an American multinational cloud computing and virtualization technology company that provides server, application and desktop virtualization, networking, software as a service (SaaS), and cloud computing technologies. Citrix products were claimed to be in use by over 400,000 clients worldwide, including 99% of the Fortune 100, and 98% of the Fortune 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Bechtolsheim</span> German electrical engineer, co-founder of Sun Microsystems (born 1955)

Andreas Maria Maximilian Freiherr von Mauchenheim genannt Bechtolsheim is a German electrical engineer, entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 and was its chief hardware designer. As of September 2023, his net worth is $11.2 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BEA Systems</span> Defunct American software corporation

BEA Systems, Inc. was a company that specialized in enterprise infrastructure software products, which was wholly acquired by Oracle Corporation on April 29, 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juniper Networks</span> American multinational technology company

Juniper Networks, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company develops and markets networking products, including routers, switches, network management software, network security products, and software-defined networking technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Storage Technology Corporation</span>

Storage Technology Corporation was a data storage technology company headquartered in Louisville, Colorado. New products include data retention systems, which it calls "information lifecycle management" (ILM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F5, Inc.</span> U.S. information technology company

F5, Inc. is an American technology company specializing in application security, multi-cloud management, online fraud prevention, application delivery networking (ADN), application availability & performance, network security, and access & authorization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jarden</span>

Jarden was an American consumer products company. Formed by the spin out of Ball Corporation's canning business, the company became a wider conglomerate of consumer brands, particularly in the outdoors and home appliances market. Jarden was acquired in 2016 by Newell Rubbermaid, which renamed itself Newell Brands.

The Cobalt RaQ is a 1U rackmount server product line developed by Cobalt Networks, Inc. featuring a modified Red Hat Linux operating system and a proprietary GUI for server management. The original RaQ systems were equipped with MIPS RM5230 or RM5231 CPUs but later models used AMD K6-2 chips and then eventually Intel Pentium III CPUs for the final models.

Tundra Semiconductor Corporation is a company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is owned by Integrated Device Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vignette Corporation</span>

Vignette Corporation was a company that offered a suite of content management, web portal, collaboration, document management, and records management software. Targeted at the enterprise market, Vignette offered products under the name StoryServer that allowed non-technical users to create, edit and track content through workflows and publish it on the web. It provided integration for enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and legacy systems, supporting Java EE and Microsoft.NET. Vignette's integrated development environment and application programming interface offered an alternative to conventional Common Gateway Interface/vi/Perl web development. StoryServer was used on many large websites including those of CNET, UnitedHealth Group, The Walt Disney Company, Wachovia, Martha Stewart, Fox News, National Geographic Channel, Pharmacia & Upjohn, MetLife, BSkyB, the 2004 Summer Olympics, and NASA.

Postini, Inc. was an e-mail, Web security, and archiving service owned by Google since 2007. It provided cloud computing services for filtering e-mail spam and malware, offered optional e-mail archiving, and protected client networks from web-borne malware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NetScreen Technologies</span> American technology company that was acquired by Juniper Networks

NetScreen Technologies was an American technology company that was acquired by Juniper Networks for US$4 billion stock for stock in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Coat Systems</span> American cybersecurity and network management company

Blue Coat Systems, Inc., was a company that provided hardware, software, and services designed for cybersecurity and network management. In 2016, it was acquired by and folded into Symantec. In 2019 was, as part of Symantec Enterprise division, sold to Broadcom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LSI Corporation</span> American company

LSI Logic Corporation, an American company founded in Santa Clara, California, was a pioneer in the ASIC and EDA industries. It evolved over time to design and sell semiconductors and software that accelerated storage and networking in data centers, mobile networks and client computing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NetLogic Microsystems</span> Semiconductor company

NetLogic Microsystems, Inc. was a fabless semiconductor company that developed high performance products for data center, enterprise, wireless and wireline infrastructure networks. The company was founded in 1995 by Norman Godinho and Varad Srinivasan, became a public company on the NASDAQ exchange under the leadership of CEO Ronald Jankov in July 2004 and was acquired by Broadcom Corporation for $3.7 billion in February 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Integrated Device Technology</span> U.S. semiconductor manufacturer

Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT), was an American semiconductor company headquartered in San Jose, California. The company designed, manufactured, and marketed low-power, high-performance mixed-signal semiconductor products for the advanced communications, computing, and consumer industries. The company marketed its products primarily to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Founded in 1980, the company began as a provider of complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS) for the communications business segment and computing business segments. The company focused on three major areas: communications infrastructure, high-performance computing, and advanced power management. Between 2018 and 2019, IDT was acquired by Renesas Electronics.

Harmonic Inc. is an American technology company that develops and markets video routing, server, and storage products for companies that produce, process, and distribute video content for television and the Internet.

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 .
  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 .