NetScreen to make use of Neoteris VARs
Security appliance vendor to use both firms' channels
Following its definitive agreement to acquire rival Neoteris, bullish security appliance vendor NetScreen Technologies has claimed that it will use both firms' channels to drive further into the security market.
However, the firm added that it may look to streamline its distribution.
Last week NetScreen revealed it had signed an agreement to acquire Secure Socket Layer virtual private network vendor Neoteris for $245m in stock and $20m in cash.
The deal, it has been claimed, is the security industry's largest acquisition of a private firm since 2001.
NetScreen has also agreed to pay Neoteris's stockholders and option holders up to an additional $30m in cash if certain revenue milestones are reached.
The move will expand NetScreen's largely hardware-based product portfolio to include Neoteris's software offerings.
Peter Crowcombe, director of EMEA marketing at NetScreen, said: "We were always going to do something like this - it is no secret that we have been looking.
"I don't think there will be any problems with our reseller base, because NetScreen and Neoteris are both fast-growing companies.
"But we don't want to be overdistributed, so there might be some rationalisation in the distributor space. It is too early to say for sure."
Crowcombe added that NetScreen plans to operate Neoteris as a separate product division, and the brand name will stay the same "for the foreseeable future".
Mukesh Gupta, managing director of distributor e92plus, said: "Adding Neoteris's products to its portfolio will help NetScreen leap ahead of Cisco and Check Point.
"It makes it easier for us to take a Neoteris product to our customers, with the NetScreen name behind it."