SEATTLE -- F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the leading provider of Application Traffic Management products, today announced that it has acquired MagniFire WebSystems, Inc. MagniFire is a technology leader in the web application firewall market and is recognized as a visionary in Gartner's latest Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Firewalls, 2H03. The $29 million cash transaction for 100% of the equity of MagniFire was signed and closed on May 31, 2004.

With this move, F5 is executing on its promise to protect enterprises from malicious application level attacks. Unlike other security products, MagniFire's TrafficShield™ security appliance protects against attacks that can circumvent current network perimeter defenses. It combines robust application-layer filtering with best-in-class network and encryption technology for a complete Web security solution that effectively protects against "zero-day" web infrastructure attacks, which are the most costly to businesses. In addition, the TrafficShield product is the only solution that truly supports dynamically changing content, which addresses one of the toughest challenges for web application protection in most corporate applications. By employing optimized real-time software for analysis of traffic at near wire speed, the TrafficShield product is the fastest application protection system available and ensures no impact on the user experience.

"As part of our product requirements planning for F5's Application Security Gateway, we solicited input from over 150 enterprises worldwide," said John McAdam, President and CEO of F5 Networks. "These customers have been asking us to apply our expertise in Application Traffic Management toward application security and they helped define the criteria for a best-of-breed solution. The acquisition of MagniFire gives us immediate access to superior products and technology and TrafficShield's underlying design fits perfectly into F5's overall architecture and product roadmap."

F5 Networks Inc.