{
 "company": "fortinet",
 "as_of": "2026-10-01",
 "choices": [
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p01",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Prior product",
   "statement": "Ken Xie's first company, Stanford InfoSystem, set up software firewalls for customers connecting to the Internet; he concluded that a firewall running on a PC operating system was not reliable enough.",
   "event_date": "1993",
   "date_precision": "year",
   "evidence_kind": "participant_account",
   "sources": [
    "FT2"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p02",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Prior product",
   "statement": "At NetScreen, co-founded by Ken Xie in 1997, firewall and VPN functions ran on custom ASICs in a dedicated appliance; NetScreen built the first gigabit-speed firewall.",
   "event_date": "1997",
   "date_precision": "year",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT14"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p03",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Initial job",
   "statement": "Ken and Michael Xie founded the company with about a dozen engineers to build integrated network and content security that would not cripple network performance.",
   "event_date": "2000-10",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "participant_account",
   "sources": [
    "FT4"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g01",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Geography",
   "statement": "Fortinet launched its first product in the Americas, Europe and Asia at the same time rather than in the US first.",
   "event_date": "2002",
   "date_precision": "year",
   "evidence_kind": "participant_account",
   "sources": [
    "FT2"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p04",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Launch",
   "statement": "The first FortiGate appliance shipped in May 2002.",
   "event_date": "2002-05",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT4"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p19",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Certification",
   "statement": "ICSA Labs certified FortiGate gateway antivirus, the first ASIC-based gateway to earn it; Fortinet called itself the only provider of ASIC-powered network antivirus.",
   "event_date": "2002-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT29"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p20",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Architecture",
   "statement": "The FortiGate-3000 (about $20,000) used the FortiASIC chip for virus scanning, intrusion detection and encryption alongside two CPUs.",
   "event_date": "2002-10",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT30"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g22",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Distribution",
   "statement": "Exclusive Networks began distributing FortiGate in France and served as sole distributor for many years.",
   "event_date": "2003",
   "date_precision": "year",
   "evidence_kind": "participant_account",
   "sources": [
    "FT36"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g21",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Distribution",
   "statement": "Fortinet opened a German office and signed distributor eSeSIX, adding to existing UK and France offices.",
   "event_date": "2003-02",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT39"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g25",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Carrier customer",
   "statement": "KDDI selected FortiGate for its managed antivirus gateway service across its DSL customers, citing antivirus performance comparable to the line speed.",
   "event_date": "2003-02",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT38"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g23",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Competitive pricing",
   "statement": "FortiGate prices ran from about 500 pounds (FG50) to about 6,000 pounds (FG400); firmware upgrades came free with maintenance.",
   "event_date": "2003-06",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT33"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g02",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Channel program",
   "statement": "Fortinet launched its first channel partner program in October 2003, followed by Canadian distribution (December 2003) and UK operations (February 2004).",
   "event_date": "2003-10",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FTX1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g24",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Licensing",
   "statement": "Fortinet licensed all security functions per appliance instead of per user.",
   "event_date": "2004-10",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT40"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g26",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Category position",
   "statement": "IDC analyst Charles Kolodgy placed Fortinet first at the high end of the UTM category and SonicWall first at the low end; only Fortinet and ISS had NSS Group's UTM approval.",
   "event_date": "2006-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT37"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p21",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Independent test",
   "statement": "In a Network World lab test the FortiGate-3610A reached 524 Mbps with antivirus on; no other gigabit UTM firewall passed 300 Mbps.",
   "event_date": "2007-11",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT31"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g03",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Channel",
   "statement": "Substantially all revenue came through distributors and resellers; by June 2009 the company had shipped over 450,000 appliances to more than 5,000 channel partners and 75,000 end customers.",
   "event_date": "2009-06-28",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p06",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Architecture",
   "statement": "FortiASIC chips accelerated compute-intensive security tasks and FortiOS, the company's own operating system, was the foundation for all security functions.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p07",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Product range",
   "statement": "The FortiGate line ran from the FortiGate-50 for small businesses and branch offices to the FortiGate-5000 chassis for large enterprises and carriers.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p08",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Bundled functions",
   "statement": "One FortiGate combined firewall, VPN, gateway antivirus, intrusion prevention, web filtering and antispam, replacing separate point products.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p09",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Threat research",
   "statement": "FortiGuard subscriptions delivered antivirus, intrusion prevention, web filtering and antispam updates from the company's own FortiGuard threat research team.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p10",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Adjacent products",
   "statement": "The company also sold FortiManager (central management), FortiAnalyzer (logging and analysis), FortiMail, FortiClient and FortiWiFi.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p11",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Manufacturing",
   "statement": "The ASICs were fabricated by contract manufacturers (Faraday on UMC foundries, K-Micro on TSMC) and appliances were built by contract and original design manufacturers.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g04",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Channel terms",
   "statement": "Channel partners generally had no minimum purchase requirements, and major distributors received price protection.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g05",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Sales force",
   "statement": "Fortinet's sales representatives worked with distributors and resellers on sales to larger end customers rather than selling around them.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g06",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Recurring services",
   "statement": "FortiGuard subscriptions and FortiCare support grew from 32% of revenue in 2006 to 56% in the first half of 2009.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g07",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Geography",
   "statement": "In the first half of 2009, 36% of revenue came from the Americas, 38% from EMEA and 26% from Asia Pacific.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g08",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Positioning",
   "statement": "Fortinet positioned FortiGate against stacks of standalone gateway antivirus, firewall, intrusion prevention and web filtering devices, citing their complexity and total cost of ownership.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g09",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Category",
   "statement": "Fortinet cited IDC as ranking it the leading UTM appliance vendor with 13.9% share in the first quarter of 2009.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g10",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Target segments",
   "statement": "The IPO strategy named increasing sales to large enterprise, service provider and government customers as a goal.",
   "event_date": "2009-08",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g11",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "IPO",
   "statement": "Fortinet listed on Nasdaq in November 2009, raising about $156 million.",
   "event_date": "2009-11",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FTX1"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p05",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Architecture (founder summary)",
   "statement": "In 2010 Ken Xie described the FortiGate design as custom ASICs accelerating the network layer and a general-purpose x86 processor handling content; 2002 to 2003 sources describe the FortiASIC running virus scanning itself.",
   "event_date": "2010-04",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "participant_account",
   "sources": [
    "FT2"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g12",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Enterprise push",
   "statement": "In 2015 Fortinet invested in sales and marketing to win share in the enterprise market, citing enterprise customers' higher lifetime value.",
   "event_date": "2015",
   "date_precision": "year",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT7"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g13",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Distributor concentration",
   "statement": "Exclusive Networks Group accounted for 12%, 15% and 18% of revenue in 2013, 2014 and 2015.",
   "event_date": "2015",
   "date_precision": "year",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT7"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p12",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Chip families",
   "statement": "FortiASIC had three processor lines: a content processor, a network processor and a system-on-a-chip for smaller appliances.",
   "event_date": "2016-02",
   "date_precision": "month",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT7"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p13",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Security Fabric",
   "statement": "The Security Fabric linked FortiGate, other Fortinet products and third-party tools through FortiOS and open APIs, sharing threat intelligence through FortiGuard Labs.",
   "event_date": "2016-04-25",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT8"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p14",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "SD-WAN",
   "statement": "SD-WAN was built into FortiOS on every FortiGate with no separate licence, so about three million installed devices could gain it by software update.",
   "event_date": "2018-10-24",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT11"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g14",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "SD-WAN pricing",
   "statement": "Fortinet included SD-WAN in FortiGate at no extra licence cost.",
   "event_date": "2018-10-24",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT11"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g15",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "SD-WAN deals",
   "statement": "Fortinet reported eight deals over $1 million involving secure SD-WAN in Q3 2019 against one a year earlier, and 11% SD-WAN market share.",
   "event_date": "2019-10-31",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "participant_account",
   "sources": [
    "FT10"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g27",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Unit share",
   "statement": "Fortinet, reporting IDC's tracker, put its 2021 share of firewall, UTM and VPN appliance units at 36.8% and said it had shipped the most security appliances for nine consecutive years.",
   "event_date": "2022-03-30",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT35"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g16",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Supply purchasing",
   "statement": "Fortinet's CMO said the company forward-orders chips in the millions rather than tens of thousands, gaining price leverage.",
   "event_date": "2023-02-09",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "participant_account",
   "sources": [
    "FT3"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p15",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "ASIC generation",
   "statement": "The FortiSP5 security processor launched with a claimed 17 to 32 times the throughput of similarly priced competitor models on general-purpose CPUs.",
   "event_date": "2023-02-14",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT16"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p16",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Unified SASE",
   "statement": "Fortinet's Universal SASE ran on the same operating system as its firewalls for consistent policy and central management.",
   "event_date": "2023-05-22",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT23"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p17",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "Acquisitions",
   "statement": "Fortinet acquired Lacework (cloud security) and Next DLP (data protection).",
   "event_date": "2024",
   "date_precision": "year",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT18"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g17",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Training",
   "statement": "The Fortinet Training Institute had issued over one million certifications.",
   "event_date": "2024",
   "date_precision": "year",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT18"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g18",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Enterprise reach",
   "statement": "About 80% of the Fortune 100 and 72% of the Global 2000 were Fortinet customers.",
   "event_date": "2024-12-31",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT18"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g28",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Branch revenue",
   "statement": "Dell'Oro counted Fortinet's branch revenue (access routers, SD-WAN, low-end firewalls) rising from $345 million to $919 million between 2019 and 2024.",
   "event_date": "2025-06-10",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT41"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g19",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Distribution",
   "statement": "Fortinet sold through a two-tier model with distributors including Arrow, Exclusive, Ingram Micro and TD Synnex; six distributors held 67% of net receivables.",
   "event_date": "2025-12-31",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "documented_offer_or_action",
   "sources": [
    "FT6"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-p18",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "product",
   "dimension": "R&D location",
   "statement": "Research and development was conducted primarily in the United States and Canada, with no source code development in Russia or China.",
   "event_date": "2026-02-25",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT6"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "fortinet-g20",
   "business": "Network security appliances and subscriptions (FortiGate and Security Fabric)",
   "category": "go_to_market",
   "dimension": "Competitive pricing",
   "statement": "Fortinet's comparison page against Palo Alto Networks offers all-inclusive bundles and quotes a customer saying FortiGate hardware was 40% cheaper than its legacy firewalls.",
   "event_date": "2026-10-01",
   "date_precision": "day",
   "evidence_kind": "company_described_offering",
   "sources": [
    "FT28"
   ]
  }
 ]
}