Swan Labs Picks Up Pivia

San Jose-based Swan Labs Corp. today acquired fellow California startup Pivia in an attempt to bolster its application acceleration story (see Swan Labs Acquires Pivia).

The news highlights momentum among new companies streamlining WAN (wide area network) links in IT environments. The all-stock transaction (value unannounced) completes a busy few months for Swan Labs. Most of Pivia's handful of employees -- about 11 -- will be joining Swan Labs. Prior to the acquisition, Swan had 23 employees.

Back in October, Swan Labs launched its flagship NetCelera devices, which are designed to push applications across WANs. This came less than two months after the company emerged from stealth with $15 million in Series A funding (see Swan Labs Swoops on Applications and Swan Intros WAN Accelerator).

By acquiring Pivia, Swan Labs is getting its hands on the vendors Pivia Performance Server product, which accelerates Web-enabled applications, including databases from Siebel Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: SEBL) and office apps from Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT).

The deal is not just about technology. Though Pivia is small, it has a couple of potentially lucrative services contracts, which now go to Swan Labs, including ones with AppleBee’s, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Epson America.The acquisition could give Swan a boost in an increasingly competitive space. Indeed, its NetCelera boxes are up against offerings from Network Executive Software Inc. (NetEx), Orbital Data Corp., and Peribit Networks Inc., to name a few (see WAN Accelerators Speed Up).

Peribit Networks has already carved a niche for itself in the application performance arena and has at least one advantage over Swan Labs -- a growing sales channel. Peribit began shipping its first products back in 2001 and has already built up strong relationships with VARs.

Tom Tansy, Swan's vice president of marketing, says his company is building up its indirect sales channel, and he claims further details on this will be revealed in the first quarter of 2005 -- during which the company also plans to release new products.

But over at Peribit, Mike Banic, the company’s vice president of corporate marketing, warns that channel additions take awhile to complete. “It’s an 18- to 24-month process,” he says. “We started our development work on the channel three months before our first equipment shipped.”

So, what’s next for Swan Labs? Beyond the new channel and product announcements, Tansy says there are long-term plans to accelerate storage applications and focus on VOIP.— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-Gen Data Center Forum