Internet security firm Websense is aiming to take on bigger rivals in the security space – Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro – with last week’s US$400million acquisition of SurfControl.
Websense will add the UK firm’s e-mail and web site scanning technology to its corporate technology. One of the main objectives of the acquisition is to accelerate Websense’s growth in the small and medium-sized business (SMB) market; SurfControl’s BlackSpider on-demand content security solution is widely used among this customer segment.
“The combination of Websense and SurfControl is expected to benefit customers, partners and shareholders by creating an IT security solutions company with the scale and product offering to compete more effectively with large global security software companies,” said Gene Hodges, CEO of Websense.
In a conference call with analysts, Hodges spelled out that the firm is looking at targeting global players including Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro.
The acquisition will also give the US firm a bigger presence overseas, with SurfControl having a strong customer base in EMEA. Websense will continue to support SurfControl’s customers and channel partners.
It also plans to introduce a customer satisfaction and retention programme to support SurfControl’s layered web security software at least through 2010.
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