国际英语新闻：Cisco to buy security firm ScanSafe for $183 mln

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Cisco Systems Inc. on Tuesday said it has agreed to buy Web security firm ScanSafe Inc. for about 183 million U.S. dollars to broaden its offering of Web security solutions.

    Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay in cash and retention-based incentives for the deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2010.

    Privately held ScanSafe was founded in 2004. With headquarters in London and San Francisco, the firm is a market leader to provide software-as-a-service (SaaS) Web security solutions for organizations ranging from global enterprises to small businesses.

    In messages posted on its website, ScanSafe said it was the first company in the world to offer Web security via a SaaS model.

    "ScanSafe sought to provide customers a solution that would require less maintenance, be more cost-efficient and could protect users from the new, more sophisticated threats that Web 2.0 would bring," the company said.

    According to forecasts from Cisco, Web security is a large and expanding market expected to grow to 2.3 billion dollars by 2012.

    "With the acquisition of ScanSafe, Cisco is executing on our vision to build a borderless network security architecture that combines network and cloud-based services for advanced security enforcement," Tom Gillis, vice president and general manager of Cisco's security technology business unit, said in a statement.

    The deal is Cisco's third purchase announced this month. On Oct.1, the world's largest networking equipment maker said it will buy Norwegian videoconferencing company Tandberg ASA for about 3 billion dollars.

    Cisco also announced on Oct. 13 that it has agreed to acquire Starent Networks Corp., a wireless networking equipment maker, for nearly 2.9 billion dollars.