Netgear Joins NAS Market With Infrant Acquisition

With the acquisition, Netgear will enter the network-attached storage (NAS) market. Its current storage lineup includes Storage Central and Storage Central Turbo SAN products.

"[NAS] is a fast-growing market. Our SMB customers that are buying our switches have been asking for it," said Patrick Lo, chairman and CEO of Netgear, Santa Clara, Calif. Netgear channel partners have also been pushing for the company to get into the NAS space, he said.

Under terms of the deal, expected to close this quarter, Netgear will pay $60 million in cash for privately held Infrant, which makes the ReadyNAS product line. The family provides RAID-based data protection for SMB and SOHO customers. Netgear could pay out an additional $20 million to Infrant shareholders over the next three years if specific revenue targets are met. Fremont, Calif.-based Infrant was founded in March, 2001 and has 34 full-time employees.

The new storage line is expected to generate $40 million to $50 million in annual revenue for Netgear, Lo said. The new product line likely will be eligible for coverage under the new lifetime hardware warranty program Netgear launched earlier this week, he added.

The deal is Netgear's second acquisition and largest to date, Lo said. Last fall it acquired SkipJam, a home integration and control software vendor, for $9 million.

The new product line will put Netgear up against rivals, such as Buffalo Technology and Adaptec, which acquired NAS vendor Snap Appliance in 2004, Lo said.

The acquisition will open the Infrant product line up to Netgear's entire channel, including solution providers, mail-order catalog companies and service providers, Lo said. Infrant does not currently sell through solution providers, he said.

After the acquisition is closed, Infrant president and CEO Paul Tien will become Netgear's vice president and general manager of storage products.