Well no one really calls him “Action” but we thought it made sense given how prolific Jackson has been in building up software companies and then selling them. His first was Riverbed Technologies, a wireless infrastructure company, which he co-founded and then served as its CEO until it sold for $1 billion in March of 2000.
Jackson then began working with a fledgling startup known as Sourcefire. As CEO, he was able to develop the company into a market leader, which then went public in 2007 and was later acquired by Cisco for $2.7 billion. And most recently, he has sold Sonatype, which he joined in 2010 as CEO.
Sonatype is a leading provider of supply chain automation technology with a primary focus on security. It has more than 300 employees and over 1,000 enterprise customers. As a testament to the technologies respect in the market, over 10 million software developers are users.
Well known private equity firm Vista Equity is taking control of Sonatype. Jackson commented, “Vista’s standing as the preeminent investment firm and their commitment to growth and innovation perfectly aligns with our passion for helping businesses build software faster and more securely,” further adding, “This acquisition is a testament to our outstanding team and clear validation of our vision, strategy, and execution in empowering developers to leverage the power of open source, while optimizing the hygiene of their software supply chain.”
Patrick Severson, a Principal at Vista chimed in, “Open source tools are an invaluable resource that enable companies and developers to keep up with the demand to deliver software applications at a rapidly accelerating pace,” and continued with, “Wayne and his team have built an impressive business and an innovative portfolio of products that empower software development teams to continuously innovate responsibly and with the highest quality and most secure open source across every stage of the digital supply chain. We are pleased to partner with Sonatype as they continue to grow their company in the large and rapidly expanding DevOps market.”
