Symantec Snaps up Nexland

Moving to beef up its Firewall/VPN Appliance series, Internet security
specialists Symantec Corp. has acquired Nexland Inc. in
a cash deal valued at $19.6 million.

Symantec, which sells content and network security software to enterprise
and consumer clients, already has a two-year joint development deal with
Miami, Fl.-based Nexland. With the
acquisition, Symantec gobbles up Nexland’s technology, which is currently
being licensed and used in the Symantec Firewall/VPN Appliance series, which
combines firewall, VPN, networking and other capabilities in a single
unit.

Symantec’s Firewall/VPN appliance is used by corporate clients in remote
offices, branch offices and small businesses.

Nexland is known for its Internet security appliances targeting corporate
branch offices and their telecommuters. The company’s products support the
use of VPN switches at companies’ remote locations and are compatible with
DSL, cable, wireless, ISDN and analog Internet connections.

The acquisition of Nexland follows last year’s shopping
spree when the Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec shelled out $355 million
in cash to acquire three separate companies for its security product lineup.

Those deals included Riptech, Inc. for an estimated $145 million;
Recourse Technologies for about $135 million; and SecurityFocus for
approximately $75 million.

Before that, the company paid $20
million for Falls Church, Va.-based Mountain Wave and its CyberWolf
technology.

Symantec’s current software portfolio include its Norton brand of client,
gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and
virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection,
Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and
security services.