Cisco continues its buying spree with ScanSafe acquisition

Cisco Systems said today that it plans to acquire ScanSafe, a privately held provider of software-as- a-service (SaaS) Web security products for businesses. The deal is part of Cisco's plans to build a "borderless network security architecture that combines network and cloud-based services for advanced security enforcement," the company said.

The deal, which will cost Cisco about $183 million, is expected to close sometime in early 2010. Upon close, Cisco plans to integrate ScanSafe into its AnyConnect VPN Client. In a statement, the company said.

Web security is a large and expanding market expected to grow to $2.3 billion by 2012.  By acquiring ScanSafe, Cisco is building on its successful acquisition of leading on-premise content security provider IronPort.  The acquisition brings together the Cisco IronPort high-performance Web security appliance and ScanSafe's leading SaaS Web security service.  This combination will expand Cisco's security portfolio to offer superior on-premise, hosted, and hybrid-hosted Web security solutions.

Earlier this year, Cisco CEO John Chambers said the company planned to be “aggressive” during the downturn and pick up the pace on its acquisitions, largely focused on small private companies with market leadership - such as ScanSafe. In May, the company acquired Tidal Software, which makes application management and automation software, for $105 million to advance its data center and service offerings. The same month, it also finalized the acquisition of Pure Digital Technologies for $590 million.

Earlier this month, Cisco reinforced its commitment to video conferencing technologies by announcing plans to acquire Tandberg, a Norwegian video conferencing outfit, for $3 billion.