BT has bought privately-held network security firm Counterpane for an undisclosed sum. Speculation put the price as high as $40 million for the company, which had turnover of £20 million in 2004 and said it had assets of £6.8 million at that time.
Counterpane specialises in providing outsourced security services for monitoring networked applications, databases and hardware for attempted breaches.
The company operates three data centres in the US and Europe. It says it currently monitors 550 networks for Fortune 100 companies and recently said it had expanded its service to cover Microsoft and Oracle databases, SAP ERP applications and IBM mainframes.
BT sees the deal as a strategic move in its continuing move into professional services. Counterpane will run as a standalone operation until April 2007, before being integrated in to BT's Professional Services organisation.
Counterpane has some papers on security here, written by high profile founder and CTO Bruce Schneier, who also produces a monthly security bulletin
Schneier and CEO Paul Stich will remain at the company.
Remote access - Three steps to getting connected
3.4 million UK professionals now work from home – is your company equipped?
Cost benefits of a global collaboration network
This white paper is a must read for organisations looking for evidence of the bottom-line benefits of high-definition video and voice communications
Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies; IThound.com brings you over 6,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports.
Join our live chat session on Thursday at 11am to...
Researchers from security firm FireEye have been able to effectively...
Do you agree?
Have your say on this article