SAN FRANCISCO — Sister companies Optumsoft Inc. and Arista Networks Inc., both founded and backed by Silicon Valley billionaire David Cheriton, shared software in harmony for years under a royalty-free agreement.
The 2004 deal allowed Arista, a data switch manufacturer headquartered in Santa Clara, to use an Optumsoft software system to write its own software programs. Optumsoft, billed on its website as a private company commercializing technology based on Cheriton’s research, retained ownership rights of any derivative software Arista developed from the original system.
