Cisco To Acquire Security Vendor Meetinghouse

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Cisco announced Thursday that it planned to acquire Meetinghouse in a deal that should close during its first fiscal quarter, which ends Oct. 28.

Gleichauf said the integration of the product lines will address cost of ownership issues by simplifying complexity.

Portsmouth, N.H.-based Meetinghouse plays in the AAA (authentication, authorization, accounting) market and previously competed against Funk Software, which Juniper purchased last December for $122 million.

Meetinghouse's client-side security software supports 802.1x, a standard for port-based network access control that simplifies the process of managing security across a wide range of host devices and operating systems, and ensures that only authorized users and host devices can connect to the network through wireless and wired connections.

Gary Berzack, CTO of eTribeca, a New York-based wireless integrator, says the acquisition will allow Cisco to finally answer Juniper's Funk deal.

"One of the challenges for Cisco has been what to do about preventing more egg on their face from Funk being acquired by Juniper," said Berzack.

Berzack says the need for Meetinghouse's technology is growing rapidly as wireless and wired network design becomes more complex. This acquisition puts Cisco in an excellent position to package Meetinghouse as part of a pure Cisco solution, he added.

Meetinghouse, which has 77 employees, was founded in 1988.