Cisco to Acquire IronPort

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) - Cisco today announced a definitive agreement to acquire the privately held company, IronPort Systems, Inc. of San Bruno, Calif. IronPort is a leading provider of messaging security appliances, focusing on enterprise spam and spyware protection.

Securing email, messaging and other sorts of content is of primary concern to enterprises and other organizations. As email and messaging are leading applications for use over the Internet, the acquisition of IronPort's industry-leading messaging and Web security solutions is a natural extension to Cisco's security portfolio. The security products and technology from IronPort add a rich and complementary suite of messaging solutions to Cisco's industry-leading threat mitigation, confidential communications, policy control, and management solutions.

"We feel there is enormous potential for enhanced email and message protection solutions to be integrated into the existing Cisco Self-Defending Network framework," said Richard Palmer, senior vice president of Cisco's Security Technology Group. "Using the network as a flexible platform to integrate IronPort's technologies, Cisco will be able to build new security applications as customers' demands evolve."

Cisco Systems Inc.