JVP, one of Israel’s leading early stage venture capital firms, announced today the sale of its portfolio company, MagniFire Websystems Inc., to F5 Networks, Inc., (NASDAQ: FFIV) for $29 million in cash.  F5, the leading provider of Application Traffic Management products, will incorporate MagniFire’s signature Web security gateway, TrafficShield, into its product offerings to help corporations address the critical problem of application layer security.

In 2002, JVP and Lucent Venture Partners transformed MagniFire’s content networking intellectual property into the leading Web application firewall provider.  JVP and Lucent Venture Partners continued to support the company with additional funding, identified the financial services market, and recruited top executive talent to MagniFire’s offices in New York and Israel.

The acquisition will incorporate MagniFire’s solution in F5’s extensive sales, marketing and distribution channels and further F5’s reach in the enterprise application security market.  MagniFire’s proprietary technology and developed products are expected to enhance F5’s role as the leading IT provider of availability, scalability, performance, and security to over 6000 customers.

F5 intends to retain MagniFire’s entire staff based in New York and Israel.  In doing so, F5 gains a competitive entrée into the growing and well renowned Israeli security industry, the birthplace of the network firewall.

“JVP and Lucent Venture Partners have been outstanding partners in building our company, and helping to take MagniFire to a new level of success,” said MagniFire CEO Eitan Bauch.  “As part of F5, we intend to dramatically impact the application security market by offering the most secure application traffic management solution in the industry.”

According to the FBI / Computer Security Institute, 75 percent of US businesses experienced financial losses due to Web-based attacks last year alone. 

”Application security is a gaping hole for financial institutions,” said Allon Bloch, principal at JVP.  “Combined, MagniFire and F5 have the opportunity to solve this security breach.” Bloch continued, “We are also happy to help establish an Israeli R&D center for a fast growing networking company like F5.”

By acting as a conduit, JVP incubates first-rate Israeli technology companies, and then connects them with customers and financial markets in New York City and beyond. MagniFire represents a model that other startup companies can emulate.  

“With our focus on both enterprise software and security applications, we have been seeding, incubating and building companies such as Precise (acquired by Veritas in 2003), Fundtech (NASDAQ: FNDT) and MagniFire and emerging leaders like Cyber-Ark, Bristol Technologies and Oblicore,” said JVP Managing Partner Erel Margalit. “Some of these companies are going to fit into the product offering of larger companies and are going to be acquired while others we hope to build into independent market leaders in their space.”

About MagniFire
MagniFire Websystems is a leading provider of comprehensive web infrastructure security solutions. Its highly scalable and flexible TrafficShield platform enables businesses to protect their most critical data, applications and customer relationships with a low total cost of ownership. Headquartered in New York with R&D facilities in Israel and sales offices in the UK, MagniFire is backed by premier venture firms including JVP, Lucent Venture Partners and other top tier private investors. For more information, please visit www.magnifire.com.

About JVP

JVP is a leading Israeli venture capital firm focusing on investments in early stage companies in the enterprise software and networking, semiconductors and components and mobile infrastructure sectors.  With over $680 million under management and offices in New York, London, Jerusalem and Tokyo, JVP leverages its international presence, vast expertise and substantial capital base to build companies with the potential to shape and dominate global markets.  To learn more about JVP, visit www.jvpvc.com.

About Lucent Venture Partners

Lucent Venture Partners is the venture capital subsidiary of Lucent Technologies with offices in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Formed in 1998, the group has invested in early-stage technology companies in high-growth communications areas such as optical, data and wireless networking, semiconductors, communications software, professional services and e-commerce.  For more information, go to http://www.luvp.com/about/index.html.