JSB Software Technologies is paying up to $5m to acquire San Jose, California-based Kansmen Corp in a deal designed to extend its range of internet access management software. The UK-based outfit says that Kansmen’s LittleBrother, which blocks access to up to 400,000 web sites, overlaps with the lower end of its SurfControl products.
The aim of both companies’ products is to insure that those who access the internet at work do so in a way that benefits their employer and are unable to waste time at inappropriate web sites. However, while SurfControl restricts access to sites related to an employer’s business, LittleBrother restricts access to a constantly-updated list of banned sites.
Ironically, only last month Steve Purdham, the president of JSB’s SurfControl division, said that a big brother negative filtering strategy is out of date and doesn’t work. However JSB was impressed by the fact that Kansmen broke even last year on revenues of $1.3m and has an installed customer base of 700 users.
IDC estimates the internet filtering market to be worth between $20m and $30m and reckons it is likely to double in size over the next 12 months. JSB now has a range of products from software that monitors internet usage to more sophisticated packages that can allow staff access to non work-related sites during their lunch hour and after working hours.
JSB is raising 5m pounds ($8.1m) to pay for the purchase and enable it to invest further in chosen market sectors. However, the company coupled the news with a warning that essential investment in SurfControl will negatively impact profits in the short term, though it is expected to have minimal impact in the current financial year.
