Cisco to buy ScanSafe for $183 million

Cisco announced on Tuesday it has agreed to buy Web security company ScanSafe for some 183 million dollars, the latest in a string of acquisitions by the US networking giant.

The San Jose, California-based Cisco said the purchase of the privately held ScanSafe, which is based in London and San Francisco, was expected to close in the second quarter of its 2010 fiscal year.

Cisco said it will pay cash and retention-based incentives for the company, which provides Web security solutions for organizations ranging from global enterprises to small businesses.

Tom Gillis, general manager of Cisco's Security Technology Business Unit, said that the acquisition of ScanSafe will help Cisco "provide customers the flexibility to choose the deployment model that best suits their organization and deliver anytime, anywhere protection against Web-based threats."

Cisco said the Web security market is expected to grow to 2.3 billion dollars by 2012.

The acquisition of ScanSafe is the latest purchase in what has been a busy year for Cisco.

Earlier this month, Cisco bid three billion dollars for Norwegian video conference company Tandberg and agreed to buy wireless equipment maker Starent Networks for 2.9 billion dollars.

In March, Cisco bought Pure Digital Technologies, maker of the hot-selling Flip Video camcorder, and it purchased Tidal Software Inc. the following month.