SonicWall buys Aventail

Aventail, a provider of secure VPN appliances and services, has been bought by the security firm SonicWall.

SonicWall announced on Tuesday that it had paid approximately $25m (£12.7m) for Aventail, which it said would complement its existing product range. While SonicWall's current offerings are pitched at small to medium-sized businesses, Aventail, also a US-based company, had traditionally targeted the higher end of the SSL VPN (secure socket layer virtual private network) market.

"The Aventail acquisition is an important step in our growth strategy," said SonicWall president and chief executive officer, Matthew Medeiros, on Tuesday. "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 organisations, and offer new solutions that enhance our relevance for today's dynamic enterprise."

SonicWall's purchase is the latest in a series of mergers and acquisitions among VPN vendors. Microsoft last year bought VPN specialist Whale Associates, which competes in the SSL VPN market with Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Citrix Systems and SonicWall.