ATEL Ventures Inc. (“ATEL”) is pleased to announce that Defense.net, an ATEL Growth Capital portfolio company, has been acquired by F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV). F5 Networks, a provider of application delivery networking products, has agreed to acquire Defense.net for an unspecified amount. The acquisition will bolster F5’s internet security technology and products.
 
As an early venture lender to Defense.net, the ATEL Funds provided the company with an asset collateralized loan. As part of the loan terms ATEL was also provided warrants that are exercisable to purchase shares of Defense.net. “This landmark year is shaping up to be one of ATEL Venture’s best,” said Steve Rea, Executive Vice President at ATEL. “The consistent due diligence and investment philosophy we have at ATEL are providing significant returns to the ATEL Funds as many of our portfolio companies are experiencing exit events. ATEL is proud to partner with Defense.net and is confident that its acquisition will help improve our security over the internet.”
 
Defense.net, based in Belmont, CA is a developer of a cloud-based defense system to prevent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks from shutting down online sites. With increasing threats from the escalating scale and complexity of DDoS attacks and a growing number of antagonists willing to use them, Defense.Net has been able to position itself as a premier provider of these security services.
 
F5 Networks, Inc. provides solutions for the “Application world”. F5 helps organizations seamlessly scale cloud, data center, and software defined networking (SDN) deployments to successfully deliver applications to anyone, anywhere, at any time. F5 solutions broaden the reach of IT through an open, extensible framework and a rich partner ecosystem of leading technology and data center orchestration vendors.