Deal of the week: Tektronix acquires Arbor Networks

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

When local leaders talk about the economic potential of higher education spin-offs, ideally they're speaking about start-ups like Arbor Networks. The brainchild of a U-M professor (Farnam Jahanian) and a doctoral student (Rob Malan) in 2000, it spun out of the University of Michigan 10 years ago and grew into one of the leading IT firms in the world. It has been acquired this week by Texas-based Tektronix Communications.

Arbor Networks specializes in network security and data centers, which is also the forte of Tektronix. Arbor Networks handles network security for about 70 percent of U.S. service providers. It is now headquartered in Massachusetts but maintains a research and development center in Ann Arbor. It also provided another profitable exit for downtown Ann Arbor-based EDF Ventures.

"It's actually pretty good for Ann Arbor," says Malan, co-founder and CTO of Arbor Networks. "It basically means Arbor is going to stay Arbor. They really value the team here."

That team has been growing. Its staff is up to 20 new members in the Ann Arbor office over the last two years, rounding out to 90 people. Malan expects that trend to continue. "We have been hiring strong for quite a while. We don't see that stopping."

"We hire strongly out of the university," Malan says. "We bring in talent from around the world here to Ann Arbor."

A sales price has not been disclosed, but the deal should be consummated by September. Tektronix is a subsidiary of Danaher Corp, a multi-billion dollar firm based in Washington, D.C.

Source: Tektronix Communications and Rob Malan, co-founder and CTO of Arbor Networks
Writer: Jon Zemke