Mellanox Technologies

Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (Hebrew: מלאנוקס טכנולוגיות בע"מ‎) is an Israeli-American multinational supplier of computer networking products based on InfiniBand and Ethernet technology. Mellanox offers adapters, switches, software, cables and silicon for markets including high-performance computing, data centers, cloud computing, computer data storage and financial services.

Mellanox Technologies Ltd.
Subsidiary
IndustryCommunication equipment
Founded1999 (1999) in Yokneam Illit, Israel
FoundersEyal Waldman, Shai Cohen, Roni Ashuri, Michael Kagan, Evelyn Landman, Shimon Rottenberg, Eitan Zahavi, Udi Katz, Alon Webman
HeadquartersSunnyvale, California, U.S.[1][2]
Key people
Eyal Waldman, CEO
ProductsEthernet and InfiniBand switches
host bus adapters
Revenue US$1,330.6 Million (FY19)[3]
US$207.9 Million (FY19)
US$205.1 Million (FY19)
Number of employees
2800 (March 2020)
ParentNvidia
Websitewww.mellanox.com
Mellanox Headquarters in Yokneam Illit

On March 11, 2019, Nvidia announced its intent to acquire the company for $6.9 billion.[4][5] Other companies willing to acquire Mellanox were Intel, Xilinx and Microsoft.[6] On April 16, 2020, it was announced that it closed the deal on April 27, 2020, with the approval from the Chinese antitrust authorities.[7]

History

1999–2009

Mellanox was founded in 1999 by former Israeli executives of Intel Corporation and Galileo Technology (which was acquired by Marvell Technology Group in October 2000 for $2.8 billion[8]) Eyal Waldman, Shai Cohen, Roni Ashuri, Michael Kagan, Evelyn Landman, Eitan Zahavi, Shimon Rottenberg, Udi Katz and Alon Webman.[9] Eyal Waldman founded Mellanox in the Israel city of Yokne'am.[10] Initially founded as an integrated circuit (chip) manufacturer, it evolved into a producer of complete end-to-end systems by 2009.[11] The company raised over $89 million in 3 financing rounds of venture capital.[12][13]

The company went public in 2007, with an initial public offering on NASDAQ that raised $102 million, and valued the company at over half a billion dollars.[14] Created in 2009, Mellanox's investment fund was publicly launched in 2014.[15]

2010–present

In 2010, Oracle Corporation became a major investor in the company, holding around 10% of its stock.[12] Oracle uses InfiniBand technology in its Exadata and Exalogic appliances.[16] Stock shares were also listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, until 2013 when the company de-listed itself, but remained on NASDAQ.[17]

In February 2011, Mellanox acquired Voltaire Ltd., a provider of data center switches for about $218 million.[18][19]

In 2016, Mellanox Technologies began to employ programmers in the Gaza Strip, in addition to its team of Israeli Arab programmers and programmers in Ramallah and Nablus.[20] In 2016, Mellanox had revenues of $857 million.[10] In December 2017, Mellanox announced it would start a new startup accelerator.[15] Over 2017, shares in the company rose by 55 percent. That year, the company also made its largest acquisition with EZchip.[10]

In 2019, Mellanox was acquired for $6.9 billion by Nvidia Corporation and it is a definite contender for the largest merger and acquisition deal in 2019.[21]

Boardroom in 2018

The activist investor Starboard Value LP purchased a 10.7% stake in the company in November 2017.[22] After acquiring 10.7%, Starboard wrote a letter to the company stating that Starboard attributed the company's "underperformance compared to other semiconductor companies" to "a pattern of weak execution that has included both excessive spending and missed growth opportunities". The letter called for "substantial change".[23][24] The day after, on January 9, 2018,[25] Mellanox announced it would immediately discontinue its 1550 nm silicon photonics development activities, with president and CEO Eyal Waldman saying the review of the silicon photonics business had started in May 2017.[26] Mellanox also said it would fire 100 people, all in the US. At the time, the company employed 2,900 people, mostly in Israel.[25]

In a "board battle,"[27] in January 2018, Starboard sent a letter to shareholders asking them to entirely replace the board of directors.[28] On January 17, 2018, it was announced that Starboard was aiming to remove the entire board at Mellanox Technologies. At the time, Mellanox had a $3.3 billion market value.[22] Starboard said it would nominate nine candidates for election to the company's board, including Starboard head Jeffrey Smith.[29]

Acquisitions

In 2013 Mellanox acquired certain assets of XLoom Communications Ltd., including opto-electric chip-scale packaging, as well as hired XLoom's technology personnel. In July 2013, Mellanox acquired privately held Kotura, Inc., a developer of silicon photonics optical interconnect technology for high-speed networking.[30] In July 2013, Mellanox acquired privately held IPtronics A/S, a designer of optical interconnect components for digital communications.[31]

In July 2014, Mellanox acquired privately held Integrity Project, for its software connectivity, low-level development, real-time applications and security technology.[32] In February 2016, Mellanox acquired publicly held EZchip Semiconductor, a provider of network processors and multi-core processors from EZchip's earlier acquisition of Tilera.

Manufacturing

Mellanox is a fabless semiconductor company.[33] The current generation of its chips are produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.[34]

Products and market
Mellanox at SC18

Mellanox Technologies provides Ethernet and InfiniBand network adapters, switches and cables for servers and storage used in cloud and enterprise data centers[35] based on internally developed integrated circuits.[19] Mellanox offers interconnect products: adapters, switches, cables, software and silicon for a range of markets including high-performance computing, enterprise data centers, Web 2.0, cloud, storage and financial services.

In 2010, a press release from Oracle described Mellanox as "the premier switched fabric provider for enterprise data centers and high performance computing". According to the same press release, Mellanox's InfiniBand technology is faster, more scalable and provides higher throughput than alternative communications technologies.[36] Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, promoted Mellanox's InfiniBand technology.[11]

Mellanox network adapter and switch ASICs support RDMA/RoCE technology, which are the basis of card and system level products:

  • The ConnectX product family of multi-protocol ASICs and adapters supports virtual protocol interconnect, enabling support for both Ethernet and InfiniBand traffic at speeds up to 200Gbit/s. The latest ConnectX-6, and ConnectX-6 Dx adapters have enhanced capabilities such as high speed (up to 200Gb per second), OVS acceleration, Multi-Host support, and inline crypto acceleration.[37][38][39]
  • The ConnectX architecture has been described as "novel", with excellent performance that is "very well suited for modern multi-core platforms".[40] The Quantum family of InfiniBand switches supports up to 40 ports running at HDR 200Gbit/s. The Quantum switches offer un-matched latency and packet forwarding performance and support advanced HPC offloads including SHARP (collective operation acceleration) and SHIELD (self-healing) technologies.
  • The Spectrum product family of Ethernet switches.
  • The LinkX product family of cables and transceivers. These products are available in both Ethernet and InfiniBand protocols and SFP, QSFP, OSFP, and DDSFP form factors.

High-performance computing

Mellanox Technologies' InfiniBand products for computer clusters are claimed to be widely deployed in many of the TOP500 list of high-performance computers.[41]

Storage

Mellanox also promotes its products for storage area networks, and pioneered Ethernet Storage Fabrics (ESF) to replace legacy Fibre Channel SANs (storage area networks).[42]

Global Operations

In addition to its global headquarters in the US, Mellanox has offices in Israel, Denmark, China, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and the United Kingdom.[43]

Customers

As of 2019 Mellanox had two customers, Hewlett-Packard and Dell-EMC, each of which contributed more than 10% of the company's revenues.[44]

Hiring practices

Mellanox outsourced some of its engineering to the West Bank. Rather than setting up offshore engineering centers in the Far East or Eastern Europe, Mellanox hired Palestinian engineers from Ramallah through a Palestinian outsourcing firm.[45] In 2018, Waldman told a Tel Aviv conference hosted by Globes magazine that over 100 Palestinians are working on Mellanox projects.[46]

Waldman had previously talked about Mellanox's plans to build a research and development center in Ramallah, even though it is more expensive than outsourcing to Eastern Europe.[47]

Awards and recognition
  • In November 2012, Mellanox was named one of the Fastest Growing Companies in Deloitte's 2012 Technology Fast 500 Rankings.[48]
  • In November 2012, Mellanox was awarded - 'Readers’ Choice: Best HPC Interconnect Product or Technology' from HPCwire[49]
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See also

References
  1. "Mellanox office locations". Mellanox Technologies.
  2. "Mellanox Technologies". Linkedin Corporation.
  3. "mellanox delivers record fourth quarter and annual 2019 financial results" (PDF). Mellanox Technologies. 2020.
  4. https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/11/nvidia-acquisition-mellanox/
  5. https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-mellanox-for-6-9-billion
  6. "Daily Crunch: NVIDIA is buying Mellanox for $6.9B". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  7. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mellanox-m-a-nvidia-china-idUSKBN21Y30C
  8. "Marvell to acquire LAN-chip supplier Galileo for $2.7 billion in stock". eetimes.com. 2000-10-17. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  9. "Corporate Overview" (PDF). Mellanox Technologies. 2015. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  10. Solomon, Shoshanna (December 26, 2017). "When a startup gets big, the environment gets rougher, says Mellanox CEO". The Times of Israel. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  11. Ackerman, Gwen (January 5, 2011). "Mellanox CEO Sees Sales Rising 10-Fold With Voltaire". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  12. Tsipori, Tali (September 25, 2011). "Oracle acquires $11m more Mellanox shares". Globes. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  13. Kovar, Joseph F. (February 11, 2002). "VC Money Continues To Drain Into InfiniBand: Mellanox Secures $56M". CRN. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  14. Walko, John (February 8, 2007). "Mellanox raises $102 million with IPO on Nasdaq". EE Times. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  15. Habib-Valdhorn, Shiri. "Mellanox to launch startup accelerator". Globes. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  16. Bagh, Carl (October 29, 2010). "Oracle buys 10 pct stake in Mellanox, will Dell, HP, IBM follow suit?". International Business Times. Archived from the original on November 12, 2010. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  17. "Mellanox Technologies Initiates Process to Delist Ordinary Shares from Tel Aviv Stock Exchange". Press release. May 30, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  18. "Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. Completes Acquisition of Voltaire, Ltd". Press release. February 7, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  19. Timothy Prickett Morgan (November 29, 2010). "Mellanox gobbles up Voltaire for $218m". The Register. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  20. Mellanox Hires Programmers in the Gaza Strip
  21. GmbH, finanzen net. "Nvidia is buying Mellanox Technologies in a $6.9 billion deal (NVDA) | Markets Insider". markets.businessinsider.com. Retrieved 2019-10-05.
  22. Benoit, David (January 17, 2018). "Starboard Value to Launch Proxy Fight for Entire Board at Mellanox". The Wall Street Journal. New York City, New York. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  23. Solomon, Shoshanna (January 8, 2018). "Activist investor Starboard calls for 'substantial change' at Israel's Mellanox". The Times of Israel. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  24. Venugopal, Aishwarya (January 8, 2018). "Starboard says chipmaker Mellanox's 2018 targets insufficient". Reuters. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  25. Solomon, Shoshanna (January 10, 2018). "Mellanox to cut 100 US jobs as chip line development halted". The Times of Israel. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  26. "Mellanox to cease 1550nm silicon photonics development". optics.org. January 10, 2018. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  27. Schacknow, Peter (January 18, 2018). "Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: MS, WMT, WWW, LQ, AAPL, AA & more". CNBC. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  28. Ray, Tiernan (January 18, 2018). "Mellanox, Under Siege From Starboard, Surges 6% on Q4 Beat, Outlook". Barron's. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  29. Starboard to nominate nine candidates to Mellanox board, Reuters, January 17, 2018, retrieved January 20, 2018
  30. "Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. Completes Acquisition of Kotura, Inc". NASDAQ. Retrieved Aug 15, 2013.
  31. "Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. Completes Acquisition of IPtronics A/S". NASDAQ. Retrieved Jul 1, 2013.
  32. "Mellanox Technologies Ltd. Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire Integrity Project". NASDAQ. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
  33. "Web-chip fabless Mellanox poised to raise $50m at company value of $250m". TheMarker. October 30, 2001. Archived from the original on February 4, 2013. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  34. Morgan, Timothy Prickett (April 26, 2011). "Mellanox uncloaks SwitchX network switch-hitter". The Register. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  35. Amodio, Michelle (October 6, 2011). "On the Road with Mellanox Technologies". TMCnet. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  36. "Oracle Corporation Makes Strategic Investment In Mellanox Technologies, Ltd". Oracle. October 27, 2010. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  37. "ConnectX-6 Product Family". Mellanox.
  38. "ConnectX-6 VPI". community.mellanox.com. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
  39. "ConnectX-6 Dx". www.mellanox.com. Retrieved 2020-01-07.
  40. Sur, Sayantan; Koop, Matthew J.; Lei; Panda, Dhabaleswar K. (2007). "Performance Analysis and Evaluation of Mellanox ConnectX InfiniBand Architecture with Multi-Core Platforms". hoti. 15th Annual IEEE Symposium on High-Performance Interconnects (HOTI 2007): 125–134. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.81.4890.
  41. "Mellanox 200G HDR InfiniBand Accelerates 31% of New InfiniBand Systems on November's TOP500". Bloomberg. June 27, 2011.
  42. Morgan, Timothy Prickett (2017-09-26). "The Ascendancy Of Ethernet Storage Fabrics". The Next Platform. Retrieved 2020-01-07.
  43. "Mellanox Contact Us". www.mellanox.com. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  44. https://ir.mellanox.com/node/21816/html
  45. Heruti-Sover, Tali (November 7, 2010). "High-tech company aims to be first Israeli firm to hire Palestinian engineers". Haaretz. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  46. Levy, Aviv (21 June 2018). "Mellanox CEO: We employ over 100 Palestinians". Globes. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  47. Mitnick, Joshua (April 22, 2011). "Tech diplomacy: Israeli CEO hires Palestinian programmers". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  48. "Mellanox Technologies Ranked Number 364 Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte's 2012 Technology Fast 500™". Mellanox. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
  49. "Mellanox Wins Five HPCwire 2012 Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards". Mellanox. Retrieved Nov 13, 2012.
    • Historical business data for Mellanox Technologies, Ltd.:
    • SEC filings
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