BMW vs Cloudflare: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: BMW and Cloudflare side by side

1. 1916BMW

   Official Foundation Date

   BMW traces its official foundation date to 7 March 1916 through Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke AG. The origin matters because the business began in aircraft and engine manufacturing before it ever sold cars.

2. 1923BMW

   BMW R 32 Motorcycle Launch

   The R 32 gave BMW its first branded motorcycle and a recognizable engineering signature around the boxer engine and shaft drive. It turned aircraft-engine know-how into a consumer product after aviation restrictions changed the company's market.

3. 1928BMW

   Entry Into Automobiles Through Eisenach

   BMW became an automobile manufacturer by purchasing Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach. The deal gave the company an existing carmaking base and moved it beyond engines and motorcycles into the larger passenger-car market.

4. 1961BMW

   New Class Breakthrough

   The BMW 1500 New Class sedan filled a market gap and helped restore BMW as a successful modern carmaker. Its sporty sedan formula became a foundation for the later performance-premium identity.

5. 1994BMW

   Rover Group Acquisition

   BMW bought Rover Group to broaden its model range, but the integration did not meet expectations and most of Rover was sold in 2000. The episode mattered because it pushed BMW back toward disciplined premium positioning while MINI remained inside the group.

6. 1998BMW

   Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Rights Acquired

   BMW obtained the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars brand and naming rights in 1998 and took full responsibility for the marque from 2003. The deal expanded the group upward into ultra-luxury without forcing the BMW badge to carry that role.

7. 2009Cloudflare

   Cloudflare Founded

   Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, and Lee Holloway founded Cloudflare, building on the Project Honey Pot spam-tracking project.

8. 2010Cloudflare

   TechCrunch Disrupt Launch

   Cloudflare launched publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco in September 2010, offering free website protection and acceleration.

9. 2011BMW

   BMW i Sub-Brand Announced

   BMW announced the BMW i sub-brand with the i3 and i8 planned as its first models. The program gave the group an early platform for electric mobility, lightweight materials, and sustainability-focused manufacturing ideas.

10. 2014Cloudflare

    Universal SSL and Project Galileo

    Cloudflare gave free SSL certificates to all customers with Universal SSL and launched Project Galileo to protect at-risk nonprofits and journalists for free.

11. 2017Cloudflare

    Cloudflare Workers Announced

    Cloudflare introduced Workers, a serverless platform built on V8 isolates that lets developers run code across its network.

12. 2019BMW

    Oliver Zipse Became Chairman

    Oliver Zipse became Chairman of the Board of Management on 16 August 2019 and served until 13 May 2026. His tenure was defined by the technology-open strategy, the Neue Klasse programme and flexible production across powertrains.

13. 2019Cloudflare

    NYSE IPO

    Cloudflare completed its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker NET in September 2019 at $15 per share, raising about $525 million.

14. 2020Cloudflare

    Cloudflare One Launched

    Cloudflare bundled its Zero Trust access, secure web gateway, and network services into Cloudflare One, its SASE platform.

15. 2022Cloudflare

    Area 1 Security and R2 General Availability

    Cloudflare acquired email security company Area 1 Security for about $162 million and made R2 zero-egress object storage generally available.

16. 2023BMW

    ~$176B (EUR 155.498B) Revenue Year

    BMW Group revenue reached ~$176B (EUR 155.498B) in 2023, the highest annual revenue in the recent report period shown here. That peak set a demanding comparison base for the weaker 2024 and 2025 revenue years.

17. 2024Cloudflare

    Revenue Reaches $1.67 Billion

    Cloudflare reported 2024 revenue of $1.67 billion and free cash flow of $166.9 million.

18. 2025BMW

    FY2025 Revenue and Deliveries

    BMW Group reported ~$151B (EUR 133.453B) in revenue and 2,463,681 automotive deliveries in FY2025. The result showed stable unit scale but weaker revenue and margin conditions, especially as China, tariffs, currency, and EV costs affected the business.

19. 2025BMW

    Neue Klasse iX3 World Premiere

    The fully electric BMW iX3, the first Neue Klasse model, premiered at the IAA in Munich in September 2025. It is built in Debrecen, Hungary, and European customer deliveries began in March 2026.

20. 2025Cloudflare

    Revenue Passes $2 Billion

    Cloudflare reported 2025 revenue of $2.17 billion (+29.8%) and closed its largest contract ever, averaging $42.5 million per year in ACV.

21. 2026BMW

    Capital Market Day Reset Plan

    On 30 September 2026 BMW set a 3-5% automotive EBIT margin target for 2028 and 8-10% by the start of the next decade, alongside fewer variants, a first BMW ALPINA model in 2027 and a compact Neue Klasse EV for Europe in 2028.

22. 2026BMW

    Profit Warning on China Downturn

    On 16 June 2026 BMW cut its 2026 automotive EBIT margin guidance to 1-3% from 4-6%. Q2 automotive margin came in at 2.3% and China deliveries fell 30.2% in the quarter.

23. 2026BMW

    Milan Nedeljković Became CEO

    Milan Nedeljković succeeded Oliver Zipse as Chairman of the Board of Management on 14 May 2026, the day after the 106th Annual General Meeting, which also approved converting all preferred shares into ordinary shares.

24. 2026Cloudflare

    VoidZero Acquisition and Growth Acceleration

    Cloudflare acquired VoidZero, the company behind the Vite JavaScript tooling ecosystem, in June 2026 and reported Q2 2026 revenue growth of 36%.

Acquisitions

Questions about BMW vs Cloudflare