By Alex Scroxton23 September 2008
Consumer and business networking business specialist Netgear
has forked out $14m in cash for Chinese gateway content security outfit CP
Secure in a bid to integrate UTM technology into its SME portfolio.
Until now, CP Secure was a largely unknown entity in Europe,
with some direct business and a small sales force in Germany
but no permanent base and only a tiny channel in the UK.
Netgear EMEA product manager James Walker admitted that the
firm had not really focused on security products in the past, and said the
acquisition was partly driven by a perceived need to get UTM technology into
its portfolio, and partly to demonstrate to customers and partners that they
could take its security offering seriously.
“It would have taken us a very long time to develop
something [in-house] that had a USP or was differentiated,” Walker explained. “The UTM market is
expanding, we’ve got customers and partners asking after it, and we don’t want
to miss that.”
According to Walker,
CP Secure’s technology will be folded straight into Netgear’s business, with the
brand itself set to disappear. He revealed that the plan was to concentrate
first on building up a standalone web email security appliance targeted at
businesses with 50 to 600 seats, and later on to introduce a full SME-focused
UTM appliance.
At some stage, Netgear will also introduce a new security certification
for its resellers, said Walker.
CP Secure CEO Shuang Ji said that by taking advantage of
Netgear’s brand name the unit would be able to “offer enterprise-level security
features to SMBs who are exposed to the same security threats as enterprises
and should expect the same degree of protection”.
