Safend spurns seven suitors for SuperCom
Encyption vendor says deal with secure mobile payments specialist represented best fit for customers and resellers
Safend has revealed that seven other suitors examined its books before it reached a deal with secure mobile payments firm SuperCom, which it says represents the right option for partners and customers.
The Israeli encryption vendor began the sale process last month following the bankruptcy of its NASDAQ-listed parent company, Wave Systems.
Safend remained an independent subsidiary following its acquisition by Wave in 2011. The fact it was funded by the Israeli government also meant its intellectual property had to remain under the Safend name. This meant Safend was able to seek buyers for the business as a whole and reached a deal with SuperCom last week.
NASDAQ-listed SuperCom said it will provide Safend with up to $1.5m (£1m) of working capital to support its activity and growth through a structured debt and equity vehicle.
Gil Alfi, vice president of sales and technologies at Safend, said his company spoke to around eight suitors but that SuperCom represented the best fit for partners and offered the most scope to develop its road map.
"We got many offers from competitors that were trying to buy our install base or some of our code," he said. "There was a lot of concern [among partners] that a big player would purchase the Safend activities and discontinue the relationship with them. So the resellers are very happy to hear that the entire activity of the company is to continue and Supercom as a profile of company suits us."
The deal with SuperCom means Safend will continue to provide full support to customers for its Data Protection Suite, including Safend Discoverer, Safend Inspector, Safend Encryptor, Safend Protector, Safend Auditor, and Safend Reporter.
Safend currently has between 25 and 30 staff, mostly based in Tel Aviv, but it is in the process of hiring back some of those who lost their jobs last month, including EMEA channel director Julian Ansah, Alfi added. The appointment of a new UK general manager is also in the offing, he said.
"We are going to enhance our R&D team and invest in additional features which in the past we did not have enough budget to do," Alfi added. This includes boosting the capability of its DLP solution around support Citrix and VDI environments, as well as integrating its product with SuperCom's mobile offering, he explained.
Wave was forced to lay off most of its staff last month but its R&D team in Tel Aviv kept product development ticking over in February. Alfi said their work has ensured customers and partners have no need to switch to rival vendors.
"I have seen several PRs offering a transition from Safend to other solutions with very appealing offers," he said. "Very soon we will be releasing a solution that will formally support Windows 10 end-point machines, which we saw as a mandatory need and therefore the team kept working during February to do this.
"I have been in discussion with resellers from North America, Brazil to Poland and the feedback I got is that they are very happy to continue working with us."
Safend, which claims to have over 3,000 customers across the US, Europe and Asia, is currently not legally able to support customers that have purchased Wave's ERAS suite but that may soon change, Alfi said.
"Following Wave's Chapter 7, several investors are interested in buying the Wave assets. Supermicro is considering investing and hopefully this month there will be a new investor for the Wave assets," he said.
Alex Teh, joint managing director at UK distributor Infinigate UK, said it was "good news that customers will be able to continue using the technology they purchased".
"We will continue doing first- and second-line support as we have been during the transition stage," he said.