Sophos to Acquire Astaro

IT Security and data protection firm Sophos, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Astaro, a privately held provider of network security solutions with $56 million in billings and 30% year over year growth in 2010.

Astaro is the fourth largest dedicated unified threat management (UTM) provider with over 56,000 installations in over 60 countries. The company currently has more than 220 employees in nine countries spanning three continents, including a significant presence in the EMEA region.

The market for multi-function security appliances has continued to grow because organizations of all sizes want better protection against security threats and need to support their users and distributed workplaces in a comprehensive, easy to use, efficient way. According to IDC, the market for unified threat management was approximately $2 billion worldwide in 2010, with a CAGR of 13% 2010-2014.

“Demand for network security solutions with more comprehensive and high-quality protection is accelerating fast, and yet companies are struggling with the complexity of multiple security solutions to serve these needs,” stated Jan Hichert, Chief Executive Officer, Astaro. “We are excited to join forces with Sophos, as we share a common mission and passion for providing the most comprehensive security solutions that are also easy to use. Together, we will deliver to customers the ability to apply consistent security and web and application controls regardless of where the user is or where the network boundary may lie.”

Customer and Partner Benefits of the Combination:

Industry-First Coordinated Protection Between Endpoint and Network: This transaction brings two leading complementary security portfolios together to deliver coordinated protection and policy between endpoint and network. By combining policy, security filtering and information known at the endpoint with the network, Sophos will be able to provide improved security and visibility along with integrated management and reporting.

Solutions Fuelled by Best-in-Class Threat and Data Protection and Web and Application Control: Solutions will offer complete protection to meet complex threats and malware challenges, especially from the web, applications and social engineering vectors that require full visibility and coordination, supported by SophosLabs and renowned malware and threat expertise.

Enriched Channel Offerings: The combination of Sophos and Astaro will offer partners a complete and differentiated range of security solutions and services to meet customer needs not answered in the market today. Partners can deliver coordinated threat and data protection, and policy from any endpoint to any network boundary with solutions that can be deployed in any way: software, virtual, appliance, via a cloud services platform and backed by security updates from Sophos Live Protection for real-time, high-performance protection for end users no matter where they are.

“The combination of Astaro’s comprehensive portfolio of network security solutions alongside our endpoint, mobile, and email and web threat and data protection capabilities will enable us to continue to deliver on our vision of providing complete security without complexity wherever the user and company data resides,” said Steve Munford, Chief Executive Officer, Sophos.

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

In May 2010, private equity firm Apex Partners acquired a majority stake in Sophos in a deal reportedly valuing the company at $830 million.