Shares of Procera Networks surged 20% this morning on news that private-equity group Francisco Partners will buy the company. Francisco Partners is paying $240 million, or $11.50 per share, a price Procera shareholders have not seen since last year.
Procera Networks offers real-time visibility and analytics for service providers. The company’s software helps operators monitor the radio access network and identify trouble spots in real time by analyzing signal strength, quality of experience, network congestion and application performance.
Procera Networks markets its solution to mobile operators as a way to quickly understand the root cause of customer problems, and to steer traffic efficiently. The company also sees potential for operators to use its solution for network planning, since it provides intelligence about what users are doing on the network at different places.
Infonetics Research recently named Procera as one of four leading providers of deep packet inspection capabilities for service providers. The other names on that list were Sandvine, Cisco and Allot.
“Francisco Partners seeks out leading technology companies with a differentiated offering and compelling product roadmap,” said Andrew Kowal, partner at Francisco Partners. “Procera is one such best-of-breed company in the network intelligence space, and we look forward to partnering with Procera to help the company and its customers drive actionable intelligence with Procera’s solutions.”
Francisco Partners specializes in technology investments. Other public-to-private deals completed by the firm include the buyouts of Masternaut, FrontRange, and SmartFocus.
