Cloud and application security provider F5 Networks is acquiring NGINX, a provider of technologies for application development and delivery, for approximately $670 million. 

Founded in 2011, NGINX is mainly known for its open source web server that powers more than 375 million sites. First released in 2004, the server can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. 

F5 plans to integrate its current cloud-native solutions with NGINX’s software load balancing technology to help accelerate the delivery of application services for modern, containerized applications.

F5 said it plans to maintain the NGINX brand and expand NGINX selling opportunities to enterprise customers.

F5 also wants to leverage the acquisition to accelerate its product integrations with leading open source projects. 

“By bringing F5’s world-class application security and rich application services portfolio for improving performance, availability, and management together with NGINX’s leading software application delivery and API management solutions, unparalleled credibility and brand recognition in the DevOps community, and massive open source user base, we bridge the divide between NetOps and DevOps with consistent application services across an enterprise’s multi-cloud environment,” François Locoh-Donou, President & CEO of F5, commented. 

NGINX CEO Gus Robertson and NGINX founders Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov will join F5 and will continue to lead the company. Robertson will also join F5’s senior management team. 

The acquisition, which has already received approval from the boards of both companies and the requisite shareholder approval of NGINX, is subject to regulatory approvals and expected to close in the second calendar quarter of 2019.