Written by: Douglas A. Brown, MVP, CTP
This is where Mark steps in.... The story I heard and this is nothing more than rumor so take it with a grain of salt but the story I heard is that Mark took it upon himself to go to the Citrix board and present his case to buy XenSource. Mark would not take no for any answer. Mark put Citrix on the line, Mark put his reputation on the line, and Mark put his job on the line . As we all know Mark got his way and XenSource is now part of Citrix. As I said in my Geek Speak presentation, it put Citrix on the top of the mountain with the likes of VMware and Microsoft. Every article talking about virtualization now includes Citrix as a key player. It made Citrix more than relevant again, it made Citrix a force to be reckoned with in one of the biggest growth markets in IT and all because the CEO took charge, put his job on the line and did what he thought was right no matter if it was popular and/or seen a popular at the tine. In the humble view of this engineer, I think Mark’s move was worth well over the five hundred million paid! At the Citrix Synergy show, there where boatload of vendors vs. the Citrix conferences just before the acquisition of XenSource where the number of venders where dwindling . It was getting boring to attend as it was the same old, same old and/or a bunch of hard-core networking solutions that no matter how beneficial they are just did not excite me or others the way virtualization is exciting the IT world. But not now! Now there is an excitement in the air and everyone in the Citrix / Virtualization world feels it. All this is a result of Mark’s brave move to buy XenSource… At Geek Speak, I also made the statement that if Citrix never made a single dollar off XenServer (the product they got through the acquisition), then they will still end up ahead of where they were without XenSource… Although we all know that this will never happen. XenServer is gaining traction within the Citrix channel, and as we have learned over and over again. If the Citrix channel pushes something, it becomes a success. Just look at the Citrix Access Gateway. Don’t think for a second Mark did not know this…
The Citrix marketing team is renaming all the Citrix products to include the "Xen" brand to capitalize on its extremely positive connotations. MetaFrame, Presentation Server, Desktop Server was the past... XenServer, XenApp, and XenDesktop are the future and a very bright future I think it will be... (until someone buys Citrix, which I think will happen before VMware's VMworld but that is a topic for a whole different article. The writing is on the wall and I think that too would have never been made possible without Mark's amazing move! Just think what it would be like if Microsoft end's up buying Citrix, even to prevent a foe from picking them up. Think about ICA as the "standardized remoting protocol" for virtual desktops, no more RDP. But, I digress)
The stock price is as high as it has been in a long time (minus a climb here or a drop there). The Citrix morale is like it was in the heyday of the late 90’s. There is an era that something amazing is happening again. The community is enthused, the customers are excited, the channel, who once was VMware only is now chomping at the bit to start offering the new Citrix solutions acquired and made possible by the XenSource acquisition. This is the sign of good things to come and again, all because Mark took a big risk and did what might of seamed to not make a lot of sense to the untrained eye (like mine) but he came out ahead and in return we all did.
Oh, did I leave off the amazing engineers and visionaries Citrix picked up too? Do I need to even say anything about this amazing pool of talent? I don't think so... Again, worth well over the half a billion spent. You just don't get guys like Simon Crosby for nothing... This guy brings fire, punch, and an amazing brilliance to the Citrix team.
This is Vishal G from Citrix. I recoreded the video on a small Flip Video. The quality may not be the best in the world but it works
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1581481341&channel=1485836774
After reading Dougs post and thinking for a sec, how can VMware crush this little pain in the butt Citrix and XenDesktop and mabey take ICA that we all love and make it better since I have not seen much other then Apollo, so Microsoft vs. VMware to buy Citrix this would be fun. VMware would do allot more with Citrix then Microsfoft at least in the short term, since Vmware has been able to turn key and rebrand products in Months not years.
Thank you Doug for the great post and you were bang on.
posted by Guest - 06/04/2008RE: VMware to bid for Citrixi don't know if I agree with this. I do agree that VMware is very good. The best at making amazing products but I don't think they could ever pick up Citrix. It just won't happen. Microsoft will make sure of that and Microsoft has much more money than VMware has or dreams of having any time soon. That is not a dig at VMware it is just a fact.VMware could push the asking price up, which would be great for all the Citrix shareholders but that is about it. Microsoft will be the one who buys Citrix, if anyone buys them. Period... /Doug » reply
i don't know if I agree with this. I do agree that VMware is very good. The best at making amazing products but I don't think they could ever pick up Citrix. It just won't happen. Microsoft will make sure of that and Microsoft has much more money than VMware has or dreams of having any time soon. That is not a dig at VMware it is just a fact.
VMware could push the asking price up, which would be great for all the Citrix shareholders but that is about it. Microsoft will be the one who buys Citrix, if anyone buys them. Period...
/Doug
I think you got this one right, thanks for continuing to share your viewpoitns!!
posted by Guest - 06/04/2008RE: anyone else catch Doug wrote "I think will happen before VMware's VMworld"Thanks for catching that. I don't want to go in to it now but I will write an article, coming soon, that details more on why I think this. I could be wrong too but I'm not record saying it WILL happen. Microsoft WILL be the one that ends up buying them, and it WILL happen before VMware's VMWorld in September. I truly believe this... I really do. BUT then I could be wrong too... ;)» reply
posted by Guest - 06/04/2008RE: Can you add formatting to the comments?? = DONE!It is done. My developer fixed the lack of rich text but there is still a few things we need to fix. The fact the font is so small for one.. But, for now you can add links and bold text and in general, rich text! :) Yup, and line spaces too! :) » replyposted by Guest - 06/04/2008RE: Can you add formatting to the comments??awesome feedback.... I know this needs to be done, really bad. I will make sure it is done ASAP... Stay tuned.. » reply
It is done. My developer fixed the lack of rich text but there is still a few things we need to fix. The fact the font is so small for one.. But, for now you can add links and bold text and in general, rich text! :)
Yup, and line spaces too! :)
posted by Guest - 06/04/2008RE: Here's the genius of this move...Could you explain this to those of us who have no idea how to read a 10k?» replyposted by Guest - 06/04/2008RE: RE: Here's the genius of this move...I am not sure why my question posted twice (I swearI only submitted it once! :) ) Anyway, I googled it and found this info - "The total consideration for the XenSource Acquisition was approximately $328.5 million, comprised of approximately 7.1 million shares of our common stock valued at $232.3 million, $92.5 million in cash and approximately $3.7 million in direct transaction costs. In addition, in connection with the XenSource Acquisition we issued approximately 1.3 million unvested shares of our common stock and assumed approximately 3.3 million stock options each of which will be exercisable for the right to receive one share of our common stock upon vesting. The sources of funds for cash consideration paid in the transaction consisted of available cash and investments. " http://www.secinfo.com/d14D5a.t176b.htm Interesting. Citrix only paid $329 million for XenSource. That is still a ton of cash for a little company, but $171 million less than first reported. And I agree, I a great bargain when you consider how much more attention and press Citrix gets these days. Suddenly the XenApp name change makes a hell of alot more sense, despite how annoying it was (and still is to say).» replyposted by Guest - 06/04/2008RE: Here's the genius of this move...Could you explain this to those of us who have no idea how to read a 10k?» reply
posted by Guest - 06/04/2008RE: RE: Here's the genius of this move...I am not sure why my question posted twice (I swearI only submitted it once! :) ) Anyway, I googled it and found this info - "The total consideration for the XenSource Acquisition was approximately $328.5 million, comprised of approximately 7.1 million shares of our common stock valued at $232.3 million, $92.5 million in cash and approximately $3.7 million in direct transaction costs. In addition, in connection with the XenSource Acquisition we issued approximately 1.3 million unvested shares of our common stock and assumed approximately 3.3 million stock options each of which will be exercisable for the right to receive one share of our common stock upon vesting. The sources of funds for cash consideration paid in the transaction consisted of available cash and investments. " http://www.secinfo.com/d14D5a.t176b.htm Interesting. Citrix only paid $329 million for XenSource. That is still a ton of cash for a little company, but $171 million less than first reported. And I agree, I a great bargain when you consider how much more attention and press Citrix gets these days. Suddenly the XenApp name change makes a hell of alot more sense, despite how annoying it was (and still is to say).» reply
