Security Firms To Merge, Form New Company

TruSecure chairman and CEO John Becker will become CEO of Cybertrust. Cybertrust will sell consulting services that can help businesses evaluate and upgrade IT systems to comply with U.S. government regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, as well as with international regulations such as Basel II, says TruSecure chairman and CEO John Becker, who will become CEO of the combined company. "It's about understanding your defensive posture," he says.

"There's big potential here," says Pete Lindstrom, research director at market-research company Spire Security.

The combined company would have annual revenue of more than $160 million and about 4,000 customers. Terms of the stock deal weren't disclosed, but the companies expect it to close in a month.

The new company will be able to sell PKI products and services from Betrusted and risk-management consulting from TruSecure, as well as their combined network security monitoring services, to companies in the United States, Europe and Asia.

The merger follows a recent string of acquisitions in the field. Earlier this month, Symantec bought application security company @stake. In August, McAfee acquired consulting firm Foundstone for $86 million.

Cybertrust will be among the top five largest dedicated computer-security vendors, says John Pescatore, VP and research fellow at Gartner. But he questions how well Cybertrust's products and services will fit together.

"Most of these services have done reasonably well as stand-alone," he says. "If that's the case, why merge?"

*This story courtesy of InformationWeek.com.