Cisco to Acquire Messaging Security Company IronPort for US$830 mil.
January 05, 2007
Cisco has announced that it is to acquire email and web security appliance company IronPort Systems, Inc. for US$830 million in cash and stock. U.S.-based IronPort provides products that include anti-spam and spyware filtering, virus defence, and content scanning, plus associated management tools. Upon closure of the deal in the third quarter of fiscal 2007, IronPort will operate as a business unit within Cisco's Security Technology Group.
Significance: Cisco has been pushing the concept of the "Cisco Self-Defending Network", and this acquisition will help to enhance the security and defence capabilities of Cisco's systems. Assets acquired will include IronPort's proprietary Unix-based operating system AsyncOS, and the SenderBase email traffic monitoring service, which monitors in the region of 100,000 organisations, in addition to regulatory compliance solutions, reputation filters, and virus and anti-spam filters. This is another example of consolidation at all levels and sectors of the telecoms industry, which in the equipment-vendor sector is seeing vendors add capabilities at all points in the network
