Beefing up its security group, Cisco has signed a definitive agreement to acquire California-based Ironport Systems, a supplier of messaging security appliances, focusing on enterprise spam and spyware protection. IronPort was first founded in 2000 and currently has 408 employees. According to the conditions of the agreement, Cisco will pay about $830m in cash and stock.
The acquisition is to be expected to close in the Q3 of company’s 2007 fiscal year. On the agreement being closed, the Ironport team & product portfolio will function as a business unit in Cisco’s Security Technology Group. The security products & technology from Ironport will apparently include an appliance of messaging solutions to Cisco’s threat mitigation, confidential communications, policy control, and management solutions.
