PatchLink on the crest of SecureWave merger

Endpoint security specialist teams up with patch management vendor for mutual benefit

Security vendor PatchLink has claimed its channel partners will reap the benefits from its recent acquisition of endpoint security specialist SecureWave.

As revealed by CRN last week, PatchLink snapped up SecureWave in an all-stock merger agreement.

Both firms are privately held so no financial details were revealed, but the deal is expected to close in the next few weeks. PatchLink claimed the acquisition will create the industry’s first security platform for unified protection and control of servers and end points.

Andrew Clarke, senior vice-president international at Patchlink, said: “This deal has been going on for a long time and is the culmination of an agreement we reached with SecureWave some time ago. It seemed an obvious move and is what we would call intelligent consolidation. The technology fits on both sides. We have even found a number of both PatchLink and SecureWave partners that have been combining the technology already.”

Clarke added that the combined products will allow VARs to offer their customers a more consultative sale by helping firms understand the capabilities of the technology and how it fits into their business.

“There is a lot of potential for the channel,” he said. “Organisations that have been selling SecureWave can now sell PatchLink and vice versa.”

David Ellis, director of e-security at PatchLink distributor Computerlinks welcomed the move.

“From a skills perspective, the types of resellers that both firms work with have good synergies and from a technology perspective the whole strategy makes sense as well. It is definitely a good opportunity for partners that are selling one to sell the other and open up different areas of the market.”

Nick Peaster, business development director at VAR Preventia, which is both a SecureWave and a PatchLink partner, said: “We can see the business benefits this will add.

The technologies complement each other very well. The only partners that might not benefit from the acquisition are those that carry an opposing technology to either vendor.”

PatchLink rides SecureWave