Parallels Parallels

Assets

For 2010 the staff of the company totaled 700 employees working in the countries of North America, Europe and Asia. The headquarters of Parallels is located in Rentona, the State of Washington, development centers – in Russia (Novosibirsk, Moscow and St. Petersburg).

History

2018: Corel buys Parallels

On November 27, 2018 it became known of sale of Parallels of the Canadian company Corel Corporation developing the software for graphic design.

About the transaction wrote the TechCrunch IT edition, referring to unnamed informants. According to them, Corel will pay acquisition with own means, i.e. without attracting the actions. It is expected that Parallels will remain independent division as a part of Corel. Closing of the transaction should take place in 2019.  The financial component of the agreement does not reveal.

The reason of sale of business of Parallels is unknown, but TechCrunch notes that Corel gradually consolidates the different software business directions, including recent purchase of the German company Gravit Designer which develops web applications for graphic design. The graphics editor CorelDraw, the WordPerfect text editor, the applications WinZip, PaintShop Pro, WinDVD, etc. is among other assets of the Canadian company.

Corel headquarters

At the time of the publication of article representatives of Parallels did not answer questions of TAdviser. The vice president for Parallels communications John Upendal reported to Vedomosti that the company has no news to the announcement, and she does not comment on rumors or speculation.

As notes TechCrunch, from the moment of the foundation in 1985 Corel repeatedly went public and left it. By the end of November, 2018 it is private company and belongs to investment corporation Vector Capital. The last in fact also purchases Parallels.

Vector Capital calls Corel company "very profitable". The products Parallels can both develop in parallel with the software of Corel, and to expand its functionality and usefulness thanks to cross-platform approach, writes the portal.^[1]

2015

The Skolkovo Foundation accused Parallels of inappropriate use of grants

The Skolkovo Foundation submitted claims to arbitration court against the resident of Parallels, having accused of inappropriate use of the issued grants, the Kommersant newspaper^[2] writes ^[3].

Earlier the Skolkovo Foundation did not collect through court money from receivers of grants because of their inappropriate use, Kommersant notes. If the fact of inappropriate use of a grant is proved, and at the same time the fraud fact will be detected, then criminal sanction can threaten defendants.

In the press service of Parallels reported that do not agree with charges of inappropriate use, but are ready to go to the settlement agreement which conditions are now discussed. According to representatives of Parallels, means which Skolkovo tries to collect, the companies as a part of a grant for 150 million rubles in May, 2011 were issued.

The term of a grant expired in the first half of 2012, and audit was booked at the end of 2013. "For this period of the rule of fund ""Skolkovo' changed", - the representative of Parallels explained. 225 thousand rubles about which there is a speech in the claim of fund, he reported, were spent for a power supply of employees. "It corresponded to the rules existing at that time, but afterwards such expenses were prohibited", - reported in Parallels.

Concentration on development of Parallels, Virtuozzo and Plesk companies

After Odin sale the cross-platform direction of business of Parallels company continues work as separate company under the Parallels brand. Plesk business division - is engaged in development of solutions on management of a web hosting, becomes separate company with own Plesk brand.

In separate company under the Virtuozzo brand Virtuozzo business division which is responsible for development of technology of container virtualization was taken out. At this Parallels Holdings Limited will remain the main owner of all three companies.

The Plesk company was headed by Niels Henike - the veteran of hosting and cloud business, he takes many years the leading positions in Parallels and Odin.

Niels Henike, the CEO of Plesk, said:

- I am very glad to this opportunity to bring Plesk to absolutely new level. Now we will extremely concentrate on our main audience – web designers, developers and hosters and we will accelerate Plesk development as best control panel in the market for management of a hosting of the websites and applications.

Virtuozzo was headed by Rob Lowell, it returned to Parallels in October, 2015. Before he held the leading positions in Colt Telecom company which purchased ThinkGrid startup where he was the founder and the CEO.

Rob Lowell, the CEO of Virtuozzo, told:

- Virtuozzo was on a first line of development of containers, cloud computing, services PaaS and IaaS long before it became popular in the market. Now, when we can concentrate on them, our clients and partners will note their faster development. Our task - to help them to provide access to the best technologies in the field of containers, virtualization and storage systems from Virtuozzo.

Pereimenovyvaniye of a "cloud" part of business in Odin and its sale in Ingram Micro

In March, 2015 Parallels announced rebranding of the division which is responsible for cloud solutions and work with service providers. From this time, this direction of business began to be called Odin while cross-platform business of the company will continue to function under the Parallels brand.

"Work under two absolutely different brands will allow us to service much better clients as they significantly differ from each other. Also we will be able quicker to react to market changes and to turn that potential production which two of our divisions have into the capital, - Birger Steen, the CEO of Parallels group notes. - Odin will continue to be focused at work with partners (and it is more than 10 thousand service providers worldwide) and to help to develop their business using cloud services. The second direction, Parallels, will continue to develop the most convenient cross-platform solutions for millions of users of Parallels Desktop for Mac, Parallels Access and other products".

Odin develops the software for hosting companies and the largest telecommunication operators of the world. Under this brand the company will help them to develop cloud services. Odin provides industry expertize, the directory of cloud applicaions and a full range of the software, including control of Web servers, server virtualization, the order of cloud services and automation of billing. Thanks to offices in 15 countries of the world, Odin supports more than 10 thousand service providers, allowing them to provide applications and cloud services to more than 10 million companies of small and medium business.

On September 23, 2015 it became known of plans of Parallels to sell the corporate business which the company does under the Odin brand. Among potential applicants for this asset the large international IT distributor of Ingram Micro and Microsoft corporation appear.

That the Russian software developer for virtualization is going to sell the business focused on products for hosting providers and telecommunication operators the Vedomosti newspaper was told the person, familiar with the shareholder of Parallels, and the source familiar with the board member of the company. At the same time neither closing dates of the transaction, nor its estimated cost are unknown to them.

Media knew of plans of Parallels to sell the corporate business which the company does under the Odin brand

The CEO of New cloud technologies company Dmitry Komissarov estimates an annual turnover of Odin at the level of $200-300 million.

The source of Vedomosti, close to shareholders of Parallels, called Ingram Micro by one of the most probable buyers of Odin, but added that this company is not the only applicant. Corporate business of Parallels can also purchase Microsoft, other interlocutor of the edition told. The press services of the mentioned companies refrained from comments.

Did not begin to comment rumors and the co-founder and the chairman of the board of directors of Parallels Sergey Belousov. He only noted that his companies are interesting to the international players therefore he hears a talk on business sale not for the first time. Belousov's acquaintance considers that he, being a businessman, can quite agree to the offer on the transaction if considers it suitable.

In December, 2015 the division of Odin Service Automation was sold to Ingram Micro which at the beginning of 2016 itself was resold to the Chinese HNA Group.

Estonia selects 583 thousand euros for creation of the development center of Parallels and Acronis

The Estonian fund of development of an entrepreneurship of EAS will select 583 thousand euros for creation of the development center of Parallels Software Estonia company, "daughter" founded in Russia, the developer of software for cloud services of Parallels. In the same place [[Acronis Ошибка цитирования Отсутствует закрывающий тег </ref>.

The total amount of investments into the project will be 1.2 million euros, Postimees with reference to the BNS agency writes. It is planned that by August 31 of the current year 60 programmers will be employed in Parallels Software Estonia.

The new center Parallels and Acronis will be placed in technopark of Technopolis Ulemiste. The co-founder of both companies Sergey Belousov last year said in an interview of Delfi that Estonia attracted it with a wide use of Russian and great attention to the IT sector from the state.

2014: Ingram Micro purchased a minority stake in Parallels

The American distributor of Ingram Micro acquired a minority stake of the Russian developer Parallels and intends to deploy the solution Parallels Automation as the main platform on providing cloud services from the virtual shop Cloud Marketplace^[4].

Transaction amount and volume of the purchased share block of the company are not disclosed. However in Parallels CNews reported that founders of the company Sergey Belousov and Ilya Zubarev still own more than 50% of stocks. Also among shareholders of Parallels Intel there are funds Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners, Capital Almaz Capital, Russia Partners and also the company Cisco.

2013

The top manager from Microsoft will teach partners of Parallels to sell clouds

In November, 2013 Parallels announced creation of new division which will be engaged in consulting and technical assistance to service providers at each stage of implementation and use of cloud solutions and also business consulting by methods of increase in profitability in the market of small and medium business (SMB).

Mark Hindsbo who was earlier holding a position of the head of division of Application Partner & Development Sales Business in Microsoft[[Mark Hindsbo|]] headed this direction.

The CEO of Parallels Birger Steen explains [[Walls Birger|]] need of creation of new division [[Walls Birger|]] with the fact that, despite significant growth in the partner network, the company observes absence in the industry of accurately created idea of how it is the best of all to sell cloud services to medium and small business. Therefore Parallels had a purpose - "provide clients and partners to all necessary for achievement of success in the market of cloud services in this sector", he says.

The new division will integrate work on a customer support, project service, development within integration projects with service providers, business consulting and training of partners. For improvement of work of a support service the Parallels company starts SaaS-систему Parallels Support Exchange created on the Cisco ServiceGrid platform which should simplify processing of "problem" customer appeals help to lower costs for management of multilateral process of support between service provider, independent developer and the end consumer - small business.

Within work of division more than for 9 thousand service providers the new functionality of the partner Parallels PartnerNet portal on which partners can take training courses, trainings and seminars was also unrolled, to receive state-of-the-art reviews world and the local cloud markets, the recommendation about business development for cloud providers, trial versions of the products Parallels, tools for developers and documentation for independent developers.

Independent software developers, in turn, can create within the partner portal separate pages for the APS certified applications and solutions and to advance the applications among service providers due to placement on these pages of additional materials, specifications, videos and technical documentation.

Opening of representation in the Republic of South Africa

The Parallels company announced in the summer of 2013 opening of representation in Johannesburg (Republic of South Africa) in connection with growth of interest in start of cloud services for the benefit of the companies of small and medium business. Till 2010 Parallels strengthened presence in the markets of the developed countries and only in the last three years began mastering of the developing regions, including Russia (CIS), the Middle East and Africa. Owing to economic and social premises the company is going to work first of all in the Republic of South Africa and Nigeria.

In the Parallels market of Africa interest automation implementing solutions (control panels a hosting of Parallels Plesk Panel and the Parallels Automation platform) which is used for creation of clouds on the party of telecommunication companies and hosting providers. The company signed the usage contracts Parallels Automation with two leading service providers of the region: Business Connexion (revenue about $700 million), the system integrator controlling more than 70% of the market of the Republic of South Africa and 50% of the market of Nigeria and also Global Micro, No. 2 provider of hosting services in the Republic of South Africa.

Expansion in the African market is promoted by cooperation with IBM and Cisco. With these two vendors Parallels implements projects on start of cloud services on infrastructure of telecom operators worldwide; at present more than a half from top-30 the largest telecom operators of the world work based on Parallels software.

While the African continent distinguishes very small penetration of the cloud services used by medium and small business it is one of the most promising regions for Parallels and quickly growing markets. It contains more than 20 million companies of small and medium business. It is 30% higher per capita, than in Russia. According to a research of consumer activity of the companies of small and medium business Parallels SMB Cloud Insights, the market of cloud services of Africa is estimated at $1.6 billion, and in three years will reach $4.1 billion (CAGR of 46%).

Preparation for the IPO

The IPO, according to the founder of the company Sergey Belousov, will happen "definitely not in the first half of 2013, and after a while depending on market conditions". Uses receipts from the IPO company for expansion of the presence in the growing market of cloud services.

Cisco invests in Parallels

Parallels announced in January, 2013 that the American company Cisco purchased a small share block of Parallels and received the place of the observer in Board of Directors of Parallels. The main objective of the transaction - to strengthen business and technology cooperation between the companies that will allow telecommunication operators to provide cloud services to medium-sized and small enterprises. Now Cisco and Parallels will be able to interact better, selling the solutions which are mutually supplementing each other, leading in the segments. The software of Parallels in the field of rendering cloud services supplements the first-class solutions of Cisco on the organization of server and network framework. Both companies already have an experience of joint work over the projects performed by the largest telecommunication operators of the world. As a part of the transaction, the party agreed to expand joint development and joint activity in the field of marketing.

2011: Revenue more than $100 million

Parallels is the profitable company with high financial results. The annual average growth rate of income (CAGR) for the last six years was more than 50%, and total revenue exceeded $100 million. The cash flow of Parallels is positive, and the gross margin exceeds 90%.

• 12 of 30 largest world telecommunication companies use Parallels software today;
• In 2011 over 150 service providers provided cloud services, using the solution Parallels Virtuozzo Containers;
• More than 300 companies from a cloud ecosystem became partners of Parallels in 2011, including service providers (Charter Communication, KT, KDDI/KDDI America, LuxCloud, Outsourcery, PacHosting, ReadySpace, TDC, Telekom Austria, Telekom Malaysia, Tsukaeru, UberGlobal, UPC), resellers (Copaco) and over 100 independent software developers who underwent certification of APS.

2009: A considerable share in the market of software for start of Windows applications on Mac OS X

The company controls a considerable market share of the software for applications launch of Windows on Mac OS X and is the world leader in the development area of control panels servers. Others the area of work of Parallels is market development of "the software as service" (SaaS) and solutions on creation of infrastructure of virtual PCs.

The company holds more than 55 patents registered, or which are under consideration. The customer base of Parallels includes more than 500 partners among whom Microsoft Apple Intel AMD Dell, HP and IBM.

2008: SWsoft is renamed into Parallels

Till January, 2008 Parallels worked under SWsoft wing. Each of the companies operated under an own brand and advanced own product lines separately. In December, 2007 the parent company SWsoft decided to replace the name with Parallels and to sell products of both companies under the Parallels brand. Merge was made in January, 2008.

2007: Concept of Optimized Computing

At the end of 2007 the firm announced the new concept of Optimized Computing. The open Parallels Open Platform platform focused on partners and covering virtualization of desktop stations and servers, automation equipment of systems and business processes for local use, a hosting and also their use in the SaaS model is its cornerstone.

2005: Venture investments from Intel Capital and other funds

In 2005 Parallels accepted the first investment means from Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Venture Partners.

1999: Sergey Belousov founded SWsoft

The SWsoft company was founded in 1999 by Sergey Belousov.

Notes