Riverbed has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire OPNET for $43 per share in cash and stock, representing an equity value of US$1 billion and an enterprise value of $921 million.

The performance company made the agreement with the solutions provider, enabling Riverbed to extend its network performance management (NPM) business into the multi-billion dollar application performance management (APM) market.

“The addition of OPNET establishes Riverbed as the clear leader in the high-growth and converging application and network performance management markets,” says Jerry Kennelly, Chairman and CEO at Riverbed.

“This acquisition also transforms Riverbed into a billion dollar revenue company.”

The combination of Cascade and OPNET will create a new force in the converged market for NPM and APM, with over $250 million in annualised revenue according to Riverbed.

OPNET will be combined with Riverbed's Cascade business unit as part of the deal, with he transaction expected to be accretive to Riverbed's 2013 earnings per share on a non-GAAP basis.

Leveraging the Riverbed brand, channels and infrastructure, Riverbed expects meaningful revenue and operating synergies in 2014.

“Riverbed and OPNET have natural synergies,” says Marc Cohen, OPNET's chairman and CEO.

“Riverbed's leadership in accelerating business technology combined with OPNET's industry-leading suite of APM products provides customers with a single solution for monitoring, troubleshooting and actually fixing the application and network performance problems challenging them today.”