This man just sold the company he founded 13 years ago for $3 billion

Aruba Networks Aruba Networks cofounder, CTO, Keerti Melkote The story of Aruba Networks, which sold today to HP for $3 billion cash, is a classic Silicon Valley tale of a huge final exit long after the founding CEO had left the company.

Aruba is an 1,800-employee Sunnyvale, California-based company that makes enterprise WiFi equipment. HP said it will pay $24.67 per share, a 34% premium to Aruba's close on Feb. 24, the day before Bloomberg reported that the deal was about to happen and shares of Aruba skyrocketed on speculation.

Keerti Melkote, owned barely over 1% of the company.

With the sale to HP, his stake is worth about $32 million (that stake is as of October, the latest proxy document filed to the SEC).

Melkote will continue to work with Aruba for the immediate future. He is joining HP with the acquisition.

Aruba was founded by three guys back in 2002 who had worked together at a company called Alteon, bought by Nortel Networks for $7.3 billion in stock back in 2000, during the heady internet bubble days.

Aruba's other co-founders were Pankaj Manglik (its founding CEO) and Merwyn Andrade ( its founding CTO, who retired after six years with Aruba following its IPO).

As to whether this $3 billion spend was a good move for HP, there are some naysayers out there.

Aruba was a far second to Cisco in market share of enterprise WiFi equipment, with about an 11% share, compared to Cisco's nearly 48% share, according to IDC.

But HP already had a full suite of WiFi gear of its own to sell, and about 4% market share.

Forrester analyst Andre Kindness is bearish on the deal, telling Business Insider in an emailed statement, "I think this is bad move for Aruba customers and HP customers since this will be the third wireless solution HP has bought in the last five years (Colubris, 3Com, and now Aruba Networks)."