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F5 history
F5 company history timeline
1996 – F5 is created as F5 Labs in 1996 by Michael D. Almquist** (February)
The gamble Hussey made in 1996, betting that the growth of the Internet would require products like BIG/ip and 3DNS, had paid off.
After working with IBM, he established the F5 Labs in 1996.
Public Company Incorporated: 1996 as F5 Labs, Inc.
In 1996, Jeff founded F5 Networks and served as the CEO of the company for six years.
His business was small at first, generating a paltry $200,000 by the end of 1997.
Big IP, a tool that controlled air traffic in the internet was their major product launched in the year 1997.
In September 1998, BIG/ip was joined by its counterpart for wide area networks, the 3DNS Controller, which served as a load balancer for companies that had multiple locations.
F5 completed its IPO in June 1999, selling 2.86 million shares at $10 per share, netting it $25.5 million.
By the end of 1999, F5's stock was trading at $144 per share, representing a 1,040 percent return to F5 stockholders who had invested six months earlier.
In 1999, F5 Networks was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.
In May 2000, Cisco bought a traffic management competitor, ArrowPoint Communications, in a $5 billion deal.
By the end of 2000, F5's share price had fallen from $36 to $9.43, a fraction of the $160 at the beginning of the year and below the IPO price of $10.
In the wake of the tumultuous events of 2000, McAdam took action, becoming F5's savior.
He reduced F5's staff by 15 percent in January 2001, subleased office space in the company's newly built headquarters, and, most important, streamlined F5's product line to make it more appealing to large companies.
Turnaround Beginning in 2001
Faced with announcing a 40 percent decline in revenues and a loss instead of a profit for the first quarter of 2001, he sought to repair F5's reputation on Wall Street.
2001: John McAdam spearheads sweeping changes focused on targeting large companies as customers.
By the beginning of 2002, the devastation caused by the collapse of the dot.com industry had winnowed the ranks of the technology sector.
According to McAdam, the current CEO of the company, it is the big decision taken by the company in the year 2002 to invest in Traffic Management Operating System (TMOS) that led to them being in the top of the market.
2004 – F5 Acquires MagniFire Websystems (at a cost of $29m) for its web application firewall (WAF) technology TrafficShield, which forms the basis of the ASM product. - Becomes the BIG-IP ASM.
In 2007, the company made one of the biggest acquisitions in its history for $210 million.
2008 – F5’s VIPRION modular, blade based hardware is released
2012 – F5 Acquires Traffix Systems® (at a cost of $140m) for its mobile/cellular 4G/LTE and Diameter signalling protocol switching technology
In 2012, Jeff started another start-up in the same area.
2013 – F5 Acquires LineRate Systems (at a cost of $125m) for its layer seven and application delivery software defined networking technology
And, he founded the company, Tempered Networks in August 2014.
2017 - F5 Launches Herculon security appliances and the DDoS Hybrid Defender and SSL Orchestrator products that run upon them.
Throughput statistics in Technical Forum 27-Oct-2020
No successful responses received before deadline in Technical Forum 01-Mar-2021
will the F5 log incoming connections into a log file? in Technical Forum 27-Jun-2022
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F5 competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juniper Networks | 1996 | $5.1B | 9,400 | - |
| Proofpoint | 2002 | $1.1B | 3,368 | 408 |
| Micro Focus (US), Inc. | 1976 | $3.0B | 12,000 | - |
| Netgear | 1996 | $673.8M | 1,008 | 19 |
| HP | 1939 | $53.6B | 53,000 | 489 |
| Extreme Networks | 1996 | $1.1B | 2,713 | 86 |
| Arista Networks | 2004 | $7.0B | 2,600 | 194 |
| Citrix | 1989 | $3.2B | 9,000 | 5 |
| Cisco | 1984 | $53.8B | 79,500 | 2,530 |
| Brocade Services Corporation | 1979 | $2.3B | 1,011 | - |
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Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of F5, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about F5. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at F5. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by F5. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of F5 and its employees or that of Zippia.
F5 may also be known as or be related to F5, F5 Labs, Inc. (1996–1999) F5 Networks, Inc. (1999–2021), F5 Networks, F5 Networks Inc, F5 Networks, Inc. and F5, Inc.