Fortinet, Inc.
Company History
Fortinet History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 2000 in Sunnyvale, California
When was Fortinet founded?
Fortinet was founded in 2000 in Sunnyvale, California by Ken Xie and Michael Xie, making it 26 years old.
- Founded
- 2000
- Founding place
- Sunnyvale, California
- Founders
- Ken Xie and Michael Xie
- Headquarters today
- Sunnyvale, California
- Milestones documented
- 12 (2000–2026)
- Current CEO
- Ken Xie
- Acquisitions
- 12
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2000 | Fortinet Founded |
| 2002 | FortiGate Launch |
| 2009 | IPO |
| 2012 | Acquired XDN |
| 2013 | Acquired Coyote Point |
| 2015 | Acquired Meru Networks |
| 2016 | AccelOps Acquired |
| 2018 | Added to the S&P 500 |
| 2019 | Security Fabric Expansion |
| 2024 | Lacework and Next DLP Acquisitions |
| 2025 | Service Revenue Reaches Two-Thirds of Sales |
| 2026 | Refresh-Driven Acceleration |
- Where was Fortinet founded?
- Fortinet was founded in Sunnyvale, California in 2000.
- Who founded Fortinet?
- Fortinet was founded by Ken Xie and Michael Xie.
- When did Fortinet start?
- Fortinet was founded in 2000.
- How old is Fortinet?
- Fortinet is 26 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
Ken Xie had already co-founded NetScreen Technologies, an early hardware-accelerated firewall company that Juniper Networks acquired in 2004 for about $4 billion. In 2000 he and his brother Michael Xie started Fortinet around a related idea: instead of buying separate boxes for firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention and VPN, customers should get all of them in one appliance, accelerated by custom chips so the extra inspection would not slow the network. That "unified threat management" approach led to the first FortiGate products in 2002.
Founders
Ken Xie
Ken Xie co-founded Fortinet in 2000 with his brother Michael and has led it as Chairman and CEO since. Before Fortinet he co-founded NetScreen Technologies, a hardware-accelerated firewall company that Juniper Networks acquired in 2004 for about $4 billion. At Fortinet he pushed the idea of unified threat management: one appliance, accelerated by custom chips, handling firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention and VPN. He took the company public in 2009 and still owns about 9% of its shares, according to Bloomberg citing an April 2026 filing. Ken Xie was born in 1963 in Beijing. Education: Tsinghua University; Stanford University.
Michael Xie
Michael Xie co-founded Fortinet with his brother Ken Xie in 2000 and serves as President and Chief Technology Officer. He oversees engineering, including the FortiOS operating system and the FortiASIC processors that accelerate FortiGate firewalls. He is one of Fortinet's largest individual shareholders. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Key Milestones
Fortinet Founded
Ken Xie and Michael Xie founded Fortinet to build high-performance network security products.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFortiGate Launch
The FortiGate appliance family established Fortinet's firewall-led product identity.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIPO
Fortinet went public, giving the company access to capital for global enterprise expansion.
Source: investor.fortinet.comAcquired Coyote Point
Fortinet acquired Coyote Point. Fortinet acquired Coyote Point in 2013.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAcquired Meru Networks
Fortinet acquired Meru Networks. Fortinet acquired Meru Networks in 2015.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAccelOps Acquired
Fortinet bought the security-analytics company AccelOps in 2016.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSecurity Fabric Expansion
Fortinet broadened from firewalls into integrated secure networking, endpoint, cloud, and operations products.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLacework and Next DLP Acquisitions
Fortinet bought cloud-security firm Lacework and data-loss-prevention vendor Next DLP.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgService Revenue Reaches Two-Thirds of Sales
FY2025 service revenue reached $4.5812B, or 67 percent of total revenue.
Source: sec.govRefresh-Driven Acceleration
Q2 2026 revenue rose 26% to $2.05B and 2026 revenue guidance was raised to $8.02-$8.18B.
Source: investor.fortinet.comMajor Acquisitions
Lacework
2024Added cloud-native application protection (CNAPP), cloud posture management and anomaly detection to Fortinet's cloud security portfolio.
XDN
2012Fortinet acquired XDN in 2012.
Coyote Point
2013Fortinet acquired Coyote Point in 2013.
Meru Networks
2015Fortinet acquired Meru Networks in 2015.
Bradford Networks
2018Fortinet acquired Bradford Networks in 2018.
ZoneFox
2018Fortinet acquired ZoneFox in 2018.
OPAQ Networks
2020Fortinet acquired OPAQ Networks in 2020.
ShieldX
2021Fortinet acquired ShieldX in 2021.
Sken.Ai
2021Fortinet acquired Sken.Ai in 2021.
Next DLP
2024Data loss prevention and insider-risk technology for Fortinet's SASE and endpoint products.
Everest
2025Fortinet acquired Everest in 2025.
enSilo
2019Endpoint detection and response technology, rebranded FortiEDR.
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Fortinet Company History FAQ
When was Fortinet founded and when was its first product launched?
Fortinet was founded in November 2000 in Sunnyvale, California, by Ken and Michael Xie. The company launched its first commercial product, the ASIC-accelerated FortiGate 3000 firewall, in May 2002.
When did Fortinet complete its initial public offering on the NASDAQ?
Fortinet went public on the NASDAQ on November 18, 2009, trading under the ticker symbol 'FTNT'.
When did Fortinet launch the Fortinet Security Fabric architectural framework?
In 2016, Fortinet unveiled the Fortinet Security Fabric, a major cybersecurity architecture that integrates and automates security across physical networks, multi-cloud environments, endpoints, and IoT devices under unified FortiOS management.
When did Fortinet pioneer built-in Secure SD-WAN in firewall appliances?
In 2019, Fortinet introduced native Secure SD-WAN directly inside FortiOS.
When did Fortinet acquire cloud-native security leader Lacework?
In August 2024, Fortinet finalized the acquisition of Lacework, unifying AI-driven cloud-native application protection (CNAPP) with its on-premises and SASE Security Fabric ecosystem.
How did Fortinet start?
Fortinet was founded in 2000 by brothers Ken and Michael Xie. Ken had previously founded NetScreen (which was sold to Juniper Networks for $4 billion). They realized that traditional software firewalls were incredibly slow, so they built Fortinet entirely around a custom, proprietary microchip (FortiASIC) designed specifically to inspect network traffic at blinding speeds.
Related Strategic History
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