Trustwave: Singtel takeover means 'powerful' channel play
Singtel's $770m acquisition of Trustwave completed last week
Trustwave has claimed its takeover by Singtel gives its partners a "powerful" offering, with the chance for them to combine its security portfolio with Singtel's connectivity.
The acquisition of Trustwave - first announced in April - was completed last week, with the Singaporean telecoms giant snapping up the company for $770m (£501.3m).
Speaking with CRN, Steve Kelley, Trustwave's senior vice president of product and corporate marketing said the deal gives partners exciting new opportunities.
"Overall, for Trustwave and our partners, we see this as a hugely, not only important, but positive milestone," he said.
"Singtel is one of the largest telecoms firms in Asia-Pacific. When you think about global organisations expanding and opening new office and retail locations, now there is the opportunity to go to a single provider of IP and data connectivity as well as security.
"So when we think about this as an integrated play, we can provide secure connectivity to global organisations that are looking to expand into the Asia-Pacific market," he said.
"From a product strategy, we will continue to do the same things, but now with the opportunity to provide connectivity and IP, we feel that will be a powerful solution for customers and channel partners, because it will be more of an integrated brand of security."
The acquisition will give Trustwave's European and US partners the ability to find new customers, or cross-sell to existing customers, which are looking to expand into Asia and want data services and security on a global basis, Kelley said.
He added that further down the line he expects Trustwave's portfolio to become more integrated with Singtel and it will be able to offer a range of network management services.
Following the acquisition of Trustwave, the security company is going to remain as an independent wing within the Singtel group, maintaining its brand, and the same personnel, Kelley said. He added the firm is currently "hiring like crazy".
"All of our channel partners can continue to work with the same folks they work with and sell any of the services they have been working on," he added.
From a company perspective, Kelley said the takeover will hopefully aid it on its mission of becoming a $1bn-company.
"With the Singtel acquisition, we are backed by a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company. That means we have access to resources and potential investment that we wouldn't have easy access to as an independent company.
"That's a great win for Trustwave, because it will help us get to that next stage of growth and reach the $1bn revenue we have set our sights on over the next three-to-five years."
Annabel Berry, managing director at Trustwave partner Sapphire, was enthused by the acquisition.
"It's fairly early days, but we are seeing it as a positive move. We have seen a few of our global clients actually ending up being Singtel clients, so that's worked out nicely for us because we are able to take the security proposition to them around Trustwave," she said.
"I think any kind of acquisition which brings a guarantee of leaving the business as a standalone entity, focused on security but bringing in the opportunity of growth and investment in a massive growth area, then I can't see any negatives."