SolidFire to keep Boulder presence despite acquisition

BOULDER — Despite its acquisition by a Silicon Valley company last week, all-flash storage systems maker SolidFire will continue its Boulder presence and its plans to move into the new, high-profile PearlWest development, an official told BizWest on Tuesday.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based NetApp (Nasdaq: NTAP) entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SolidFire for $870 million in cash.

“There are still discussions to be had about branding,” said Jay Prassl, SolidFire’s vice president for marketing, “but NetApp is not only excited about the technology but also the SolidFire brand itself. And as one of the early people here, I can say we feel this is a pretty exciting outcome for our shareholders and employees.

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“I think it presents some wonderful opportunities,” he said. “We now have access to global channels and a large market reach. And the synergies are two ways. They gain as SolidFire becomes an addition to their already strong portfolio. We help them go deeper into their next-generation data center space.”

With the acquisition, NetApp will have all-flash offerings that address each of the three largest all-flash array market segments.

Once the transaction closes, most likely in NetApp’s fiscal fourth quarter of 2016, according to a joint media statement, SolidFire chief executive David Wright, who founded the company in Atlanta in 2009 and moved it to 1600 Pearl St. in Boulder in early 2011, will lead the SolidFire product line within NetApp’s operations.

“Both SolidFire and NetApp have deep technical, customer-centric cultures which are focused on delivering innovations that give customers a competitive advantage,” said Wright in a prepared statement. “We look forward to enhancing NetApp’s position within the all-flash array market while helping NetApp and SolidFire customers and partners succeed.”

Earlier this year, SolidFire announced that it would be putting all of its employees under one roof in a 62,000-square-foot space at PearlWest, the four-story office and retail building going up at the former site of the Daily Camera at 11th and Pearl streets in Boulder.

SolidFire currently has employees spread among 1600 Pearl and three other smaller offices in Boulder. Of its approximately 400 employees worldwide, about 250 are in Boulder. Company officials earlier this year had said SolidFire aimed to grow to more than 500 employees in Boulder eventually and expected to maintain its four current offices in the city to accommodate long-term growth.

With news of the acquisition, Prassl said he was uncertain about future hiring locally.

“The plans today have us continuing to move into Pearl West,” Prassl said. “There is likely to be an influx of NetApp folks here, so a lot of that is yet to be determined — but there will be plenty of seats over there.”

NetApp is a $6 billion-per-year company with 7,000 employees worldwide that provides data management and cloud storage solutions. The company already has a presence in Boulder, with an office at 5400 Airport Blvd.