Cisco To Bulk Up Security With $453M Acquisition

Cisco announced its intent to acquire network security company Lancope yesterday (Oct. 27), in a move that the company said will strengthen its Security Everywhere strategy to support threat protection before, during and after an attack.

Cisco confirmed it will pay $452.5 million in cash and assumed equity awards for the startup, along with any additional retention-based incentives for Lancope employees who are hired on at Cisco.

“As enterprises digitize, security challenges rapidly evolve. Real-time visibility and understanding of the behavior of every machine or device on the network becomes critical in adapting the ability of enterprises to identify and respond to the next wave of cyber threats,” Rob Salvagno, VP of Corporate Development at Cisco, said in a statement. “Cisco is committed to helping organizations defend their networks and devices. Together with Lancope, our combined solutions can help turn a customer’s entire network into a security sensor.”

Lancope supports threat visibility, network behavior analytics and security intelligence, which Cisco said will add additional capabilities to its portfolio and extend protections for its customers.

“Lancope has been part of Cisco’s security solution for many years through a successful commercial relationship and now we are coming together as one team,” Salvagno explained in a separate blog post. “Our combined solutions help secure customers’ resources and critical assets by using their network as a sensor—extending protection further into their networks and allowing them to see more threats and to identify these threats faster.”

Earlier this year, Cisco also bought cloud security player OpenDNS for $635 million, positioning Cisco further into cloud and expanding the technology conglomerate beyond its traditional bastion of hardware.

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