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» VIEW ALL POSTS Jun 13 2007   9:44AM GMT

SonicWall to acquire Aventail for $25 million



Posted by: Bill Brenner
Security Vendor News

Another week, another acquisition in the IT security market.

A full week after we wrote about IBM’s bid to acquire Watchfire comes news that SonicWall has an agreement to buy Secure Socket Layer (SSL) VPN vendor Aventail for $25 million.

SonicWall says this acquisition will help it cater to a broader audience by combining the two companies’ SSL VPN strength.

SonicWall CEO Matthew Medeiros offered this statement: “The Aventail acquisition is an important step in our growth strategy. SonicWall is number one in SSL VPN unit share worldwide, and this acquisition will help grow our revenue share. We will compete more effectively in the remote access space, building on complementary elements in our two organizations and offer new solutions that enhance our relevance for today’s dynamic enterprise.”

And here’s a statement from Aventail CEO Evan Kaplan: “SonicWall has a strong history of innovation and a successful go-to-market strategy through its worldwide channel, which offers a wide variety of products relevant to Aventail’s customers and channel partners. Our combined product sets and expertise offer great potential for future cross-development and growth.”

This news isn’t as earth-shattering as the IBM-Watchfire announcement, but it continues the larger trend of consolidation in the security market.

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SonicWall-Aventail merger could lead to lost jobs — Security Bytes  |   Jun 18 2007   9:36AM GMT

[...] A few days after SonicWall announced it would acquire SSL VPN vendor Aventail for $25 million, I caught up with Patrick Sweeney, VP of Aventail’s secure networking business unit, and Lewis Carpenter, the company’s COO. The focus of the conversation was on how Aventail would be absorbed into SonicWall and what that would mean for employees at both companies. [...]


 

Dana Hendrickson  |   Jun 18 2007   1:05PM GMT

This is an excellent combination and a good deal for both companies. SonicWall picks up a SSL VPN-based, remote access gateway with policy-based, access controls and endpoint security FAR RICHER than SonicWall’s own SSL VPN products. Aventail gains channel strength and no longer carries an unbearable cost structure as an independent vendor with a single product line (Aventail lost $10M on $18M of revenue in 2006.)

Now SonicWall needs to acquire advanced NAC technology that deals with both remote and local access and integrate its individual access products - including its own network intrusion prevention product into a more easily managed SOLUTION. This will take at least 18 to 24 months. Meanwhile the highly competitive “access gateway” landscape is changing rapidly. (A comprehensive analysis of the evolving admission and access control marketplace is available at the Secure Access Central security portal.) SonicWall appears capable and committed to becoming a top-tier access control vendor but this will remain a difficult challenge.


 
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