SonicWALL To Expand Offerings With Aventail Acquisition

SonicWALL announced that it intends to acquire SSL VPN maker Aventail for approximately $25 million in cash. The acquisition will bring SonicWALL new features and functionality not currently available in its product line.

Through the acquisition SonicWALL will gain technology that will allow it to introduce more flexibility, granular control, and support for more operating systems. SonicWALL also sees the acquisition as beneficial because Aventail products are designed for businesses of all sizes, said Matt Medeiro, SonicWall president and CEO, in a conference call. Aventail also brings to SonicWALL a significant list of customers, including IBM, Target, and Morgan Stanley.

Medeiro said that SonicWALL will improve Aventail solutions by adding intrusion prevention and antivirus gateway capabilities. Conversely SonicWALL products can be upgraded to include granular end-point control and multi-platform client technology.

Aventail currently has 175 employees with 127 in the USA and 48 in India. Rob Selvi, SonicWALL chief financial officer, said that it would add approximately 130 of those employees to its team.