About

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in San Francisco, Riverbed specializes in developing technology for monitoring, troubleshooting, and enhancing customers' IT environments. Riverbed’s Alluvio business unit provides a Unified Observability platform that captures user experience, application, and network performance data, then applies AI to correlate data to provide actionable insights. Riverbed’s Acceleration business unit provides fast, agile, and secure acceleration of cloud-hosted, SaaS, and on-premise applications.

Insight & Approach

Riverbed marks Vector’s first investment out of Vector Capital VI and encompasses many aspects of our investment strategy: acquiring from a lender group to resolve a distressed situation, a disciplined approach to valuation, and a clear transformation plan led by the Vector Value Creation Team. Synergy between Vector's credit and equity teams enabled Vector to move quickly, as our credit team had tracked Riverbed closely through its bankruptcy in 2021. By employing creative structuring and leveraging our expertise in lender transactions, Vector was able to successfully structure a “win-win” transaction attractive to all parties. This enabled us to acquire Riverbed for significantly less than the face value of its existing debt while avoiding a bankruptcy process.

Vector Value Add

Concurrent with the closing of the transaction, Vector appointed Dave Donatelli as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Donatelli previously served in senior leadership positions at Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and EMC, and most recently served as lead independent director at MarkLogic, a leading database management company and Vector Capital Portfolio Company. John Theler is returning to Riverbed as Chief Financial Officer, having previously held the role from 2015 to 2019. Mr. Theler most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at MarkLogic, a Vector Capital Portfolio Company, and Avetta. Vector is working closely with both Mr. Donatelli and Mr. Theler, along with Riverbed's management team, to optimize the growth and profitability of each of Riverbed’s business lines.