Security was one of five areas identified as sexy, with much-sought short-term growth potential, by Cisco boss John Chambers.
The deal calls for Cisco common stock with a value of approximately $154m to be exchanged for all outstanding shares and options of Okena. The deal is expected to be completed in Cisco’s fiscal third quarter, which ends in April 2003, and Cisco expects a one-time charge from the deal of not more than $0.01 per share.
The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company, but is subject to various closing conditions.
Okena provides network security software that provides threat protection for desktop and server computing systems, also known as endpoints. It identifies and prevents malicious behaviour before any damage is caused, by intercepting all operating system, file system, configuration, registry, and network requests.
Waltham, Massachusetts-based Okena was founded in 1999, and all its 52 employees will transfer over to Cisco’s Virtual Private Network and Security Business unit.
Source: Computerwire
