Citrix Buys NetScaler

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS), the global leader in access infrastructure solutions, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held NetScaler, Inc., a global leader in high-performance application networking. The transaction is valued at approximately $300 million in cash and stock, plus the assumption of approximately $23 million in unvested stock options. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2005 subject to customary closing conditions including shareholder and regulatory approvals.

NetScaler, founded in 1998, is based in San Jose, Calif., and has approximately 200 employees, with research and development teams in Silicon Valley and India. The company pioneered the market for next-generation application networking acceleration and initially rose to prominence in the Internet market, delivering technology to top companies such as Google, Amazon, Dow Jones, Earthlink, E*Trade, MSN and Ticketmaster. Today, NetScaler estimates that up to 75 percent of all Internet users go through a NetScaler system each day. NetScaler now has more than 500 enterprise customers and over 3,000 deployments of its award-winning products, including Fortune 500 leaders Merrill Lynch, JC Penney, 7-Eleven, Blue Cross, Ford and United Airlines, and is consistently ranked number one in both performance and customer satisfaction.

“This is an exciting acquisition for Citrix,” said Mark Templeton, president and chief executive officer for Citrix. “We’re aggressively pursuing the strategy we outlined in early 2003 to expand into high-growth markets adjacent to the access infrastructure market through building and acquiring best of breed access infrastructure technologies.

“With this acquisition, our existing customers will further lower costs and increase the performance of their Citrix Presentation Server systems, and we’ll be able to offer greater performance and lower costs for customers deploying Web-based applications and services.

“NetScaler extends our best access experience value for the entire range of Web-based applications, including enterprise, browser-based, XML Web services, and others. And, with NetScaler accelerators, Citrix customers can significantly optimize their entire set of legacy, client/server, or three-tier applications delivered on our Presentation Server system,” said Templeton.

“By adding NetScaler products to the Citrix Access Platform, we are the only company offering a complete system that provides end users with the best access experience and delivers cost-saving benefits to IT staffs through reduced overhead, enhanced security and increased manageability of all enterprise applications and resources.”

Citrix Systems Inc.