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In the latest deal in the security industrys ongoing consolidation, Symantec Corp. has agreed to acquire Nexland Inc., a small appliance vendor, for $19.6 million in cash, according to a release published by Nexland Wednesday.
Nexland, based in Miami, has had a relationship with Symantec for two years, under which Symantec has been licensing the smaller companys technology for use in its Firewall/VPN appliance products. The heart of Nexlands product lineup is a proprietary technology that allows encrypted VPN packets to skip the Network Address Translation performed on the appliances.
The Nexland acquisition is just the latest in a series of deals that are reshaping the landscape of the security market. Network Associates Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. have been the prime movers of late. NAI this year has acquired two intrusion-prevention vendors, IntruVert Networks Inc. and Entercept Security Technologies. And Cisco in January bought Okena Inc., another player in the nascent intrusion-prevention field.
Nexlands appliances are primarily meant for deployment in branch offices and home offices, but it also has a line of higher-end enterprise boxes.
Symantec, based in Cupertino, Calif., has for years been mainly a software vendor. But it has recently begun investing heavily in the hardware business. Much of its investment has been focused on its line of Firewall/VPN appliances, but it recently introduced a new Gateway Security box, as well, which integrates several security functions into one appliance.
The company hasnt abandoned its software roots, though. This week Symantec introduced its Vulnerability Assessment application. The solution integrates with the companys Security Management System and is designed to help enterprises get a picture of the overall vulnerability of their networks to a wide range of attacks.
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