So there’s loads of stuff on the net about the upcoming merger between BlueCoat and Packeteer. I’m going to add my own 2p to the thoughts, as I think that this is a potentially large issue for users of Packetshaper, iShared and SkyX devices.
Some of the other comment on this merger is available at the pages are shown below:
- Blue Coat pockets Packeteer for $268m | The Register
- Blue Coat vows to fund the heck out of PacketShaper | The Register
- Packeteer > News > Press Releases
- Blue Coat Announces Private Placement of $80 Million in Convertible Notes to Partially Fund the Acquisition of Packeteer | Blue Coat Systems, Inc.
So apart from the credit crunch meaning that BlueCoat has to go to Packeteers shareholders to fund the aquisition based on future value of the BlueCoat stock, there’s some other other things that should make current Packeteer users worry.
A previous BlueCoat aquisition was the NetCache arm of NetApp , which was being sold off in June 2006. At the time NetCache was lagging in features behind the BlueCoat ProxySG devices, and the aquisition was basically for the customer base. Shortly after the NetCache line was declared end-of-life, and the migration of the NetCache user base to ProxySG was started. This is still continuing, with many NetCache customers still not moving over, but contining to run on the old platform as they are comfortable with it.
