Nine months after telling Light Reading that it wasn't up for sale, SDN startup PLUMgrid has sold its technology and IP, and employees "have joined a new team." The buyer: VMware.

PlumGrid Inc. announced the sale on its blog Monday, without naming the buyer. VMware confirmed in email that it's the company making the acquisition. The deal closed Friday, VMware says.

Neither company would comment on the price, or future of PLUMgrid's management team, or how PLUMgrid will fit into VMware's line.

We're told that VMware grabbed all of PLUMgrid's technology and most employees -- but not PLUMgrid CEO Larry Lang, who joined the company in 2015. (See PLUMgrid Appoints Larry Lang as CEO.)

Rumors were swirling in March that PLUMgrid was looking for a suitor, but Lang denied it to Light Reading. (See PLUMgrid CEO on M&A Rumors: Nope.)

"We're not really on the market," he said at the time. But he added, "We're a startup company. If someone came to the door with the right offer, we'd look at it."

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Lang said at that time that the company had enough cash to get through the end of the year. So that was a close call for PLUMgrid.

I emailed Lang Monday morning: "Looks like you were on the market after all, eh?" I said. He replied: "Every debutant is happy to receive gentlemen callers. ;-)"

PLUMgrid was founded in 2011, backed by US Venture Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Longworth Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and Swisscom Ventures. It has received $45.91 million in three funding rounds, according to CrunchBase.

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— Mitch Wagner, , Editor, Light Reading Enterprise Cloud