Redback Networks provided hardware and software used by

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

s to manage

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

services. The company's products included the SMS (Subscriber Management System), SmartEdge, and SmartMetro product lines. In January 2007, the company was acquired by

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...

History

Redback Networks was founded in August 1996 by Gaurav Garg, Asher Waldfogel, and William M. Salkewicz. The company received

seed money Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' ...

from Sequoia Capital. In May 1999, during the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

. After pricing at $23 each, shares soared 266% on the first day of trading. In November 1999, the company acquired Siara Systems, which at the time only had products in the prototype stage, for $4.3 billion in stock. In 2000, its share price peaked at $198 but fell to $0.27 in October 2002, after the burst of the

. In August 2000, the company acquired Abatis Systems. In October 2000, the company opened a regional headquarters in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. In January 2007, the company was acquired by

for $1.9 billion, or $25 per share.

References

{{Dot-com Bubble 1996 establishments in California 1999 initial public offerings 2007 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Dot-com bubble