Secure Computing to Acquire CyberGuard

Secure Computing announced that it will acquire CyberGuard. Under the terms of the deal Secure Computing will acquire all outstanding shares of CyberGuard common stock and in turn issue shares of its common stock, as well as cash, to CyberGuard stockholders.

CyberGuard's offerings including firewall and VPN solutions as well as a content management suite that protects against spam, viruses, and malicious Web content, and also protects instant messaging clients. The company also offers a centralized security management system for policy enforcement. The products compliment Secure Computing offerings, which include the well-known Sidewinder firewall and VPN appliances, Web content filtering, and hardware-based authentication solutions that integrate with Active Directory and are meant to replace traditional access passwords for popular services such as Outlook Web Access, Citrix Metaframe, VPNs, and more.

"This transaction meets important strategic priorities and better positions Secure Computing in two of the fastest growing markets of the security industry," said John McNulty, president and CEO at Secure Computing. "By combining the companies, Secure Computing will be the leader in the [unified threat management] market, the fastest growing segment of the IT security market according to IDC. It will also accelerate our ability to further penetrate the [secure content management] market, and clearly positions Secure Computing as the number two player in web filtering with approximately 21.0 million licensed seats."