Dell Looks to Expand Security Offerings With Acquisition of SonicWALL

Dell today said it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SonicWALL, Inc., a security vendor best known for its firewalls and and data protection offerings.

In June 2010, an investor group led by Thoma Bravo, LLC and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Teachers’ Private Capital made a move to acquire SonicWALL and take the company private a transaction valued at approximately $717 million.

Today’s announcement will end recent speculation that the Texas-based giant could potentially acquire Fortinet—a deal that would have cost the company significantly more than it likely paid for SonicWALL.

Through the acquisition, Dell will expand its security portfolio,  adding a significant hardware component to its Dell SecureWorks security services, which the company acquired in a deal that completed in February 2011. Dell will be able to offer SonicWALL’s Firewalls and Unified Threat Management (UTM) devices as part of its broader range of enterprise offerings.

SonicWALL claims more than 300,000 customers that use its solutions including firewalls, secure remote access, email security, backup and recovery, and policy, management and reporting.

In the channel, Dell plans to take select SonicWALL channel programs and combine it with Dell’s PartnerDirect program. Dell also said that its existing PartnerDirect members will be able to sell SonicWALL solutions.

Dell said it looks forward to welcoming SonicWALL’s approximately 950 employees, and did not say if any SonicWALL positions would be eliminated as part of the combination.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed and is expected to close in the second quarter of Dell’s FY13.

As always, the transaction remains subject to customary conditions.

Dell will host an analyst call with John Swainson, president, Dell Software; Dave Johnson, senior vice president, Dell Corporate Strategy; and Matt Medeiros, president and CEO, SonicWALL; will be webcast live today at 8:45 a.m. CST and archived at www.dell.com/investor.