Global tech company Broadcom Inc. acquires Stillwater-based Hostbridge Technology
Aug. 3—For the past two decades, Hostbridge Technology has been a home-grown success story, leveraging technology to serve clients around the world from downtown Stillwater. But change has come.
CEO Russ Teubner announced Tuesday on his Facebook account that the company he co-founded with Chief Technical Officer Scott Glenn in 2000, has been acquired by Broadcom, Inc. a global company that manufactures and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software used by the wireless and broadband communications industry.
The company, which is headquartered in San Jose, California, had earnings of $27.45 billion last year.
Teubner said he can't speak for Broadcom, but based on his understanding, he expects the Hostbridge Technology name to stay and become the umbrella for a broader initiative from Broadcom that also focuses on integrating legacy mainframe computer systems with newer and cloud-based applications.
"Their commitment is to take the nucleus of what we've built and add to it," he said.
Many companies, especially those in banking, insurance and manufacturing, still rely on IBM mainframe platforms and it would be extremely costly for them to change, Teubner explained. Hostbridge technology has specialized in helping its clients find ways to integrate their existing mainframe "host" systems with newer technology, hence the company's name.
He said mainframes can actually be the most powerful, cost-effective and secure platforms for many organizations, and IBM continues to refresh and enhance its software. In spite of predictions he's heard for the past 40 years, mainframe computers aren't going away, he said.
Teubner sees opportunity for growth in the market Hostbridge serves and the reach of the new company means it can be done on a larger scale.
He's ready to move ahead and says it will be a journey, just as it was the last time. As a serial entrepreneur, it's part of the process.
The technical team — most of Hostbridge's small work force in Stillwater — will move forward with Broadcom, although sales and marketing will be cut because Broadcom has its own sales and marketing.
One job in Stillwater will be cut, he said. Contract sales and marketing employees in other cities will also be cut.
Teubner has committed to staying with the company and said he has incentives to do so. He says he'll eventually have more flexibility to work on things that interest him, including the pile of projects he's dreamed up but hasn't had time to work on.
He plans to continue working from the offices his company occupies at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Main Street and said he believes most other employees will as well, although some may take the opportunity to work from home.
Teubner sees expansion as a possibility and plans to beef up his team. There is no guarantee where those jobs will be, he said, although Broadcom is intrigued by Stillwater because of its cost of living.
He thinks the city has much to recommend it.
"This is the second time that I've started a company in Stillwater, grown it for about 20 years and sold it to a public company," Teubner said. "It's every entrepreneur's dream. But it also says something else ... It says you can start a company in Stillwater and grow it as far as you can and exit well.
"To me, what this says, if anything, is that Stillwater is an absolutely amazing place to start a business, whether your customers are local, regional or global. Creativity and hard work do not respect your zip code and in the world we live in now, no one cares what our zip code is as long as you can deliver business value for them."
