CyberGuard Acquires Webwasher AG

Webwasher is expected to operate as a wholly owned division of CyberGuard, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. A company spokeswoman said she anticipates that CyberGuard will incorporate Webwasher's existing channel program into its own.

CyberGuard CEO Pat Clawson said the deal gives the company a stake in the burgeoning secure content management market. Webwasher is the top Web filtering provider in Germany and holds 40 percent of the market in central Europe.

"This [acquisition] shows that we are executing on our strategic vision of becoming a broad-based security company focused on delivering solutions aimed at Global 1000 companies and government customers around the world," Clawson said in a statement. "We are creating a broad-spectrum security offering of enterprise-class, best-of-breed technologies."

A technology spinoff from Siemens AG, Webwasher is a privately held provider of Internet security products for corporations, educational institutions and government agencies. The company recently was named the fastest-growing provider of Web filtering solutions by research firm IDC.

In the same report, IDC projected that the Web filtering and e-mail security market will expand 31 percent each year, growing from $506 million in 2002 to $1.93 billion in 2007.

Clawson said he expects the acquisition to be completed by year's end.