• silicon.com
• Technology
• Security

By Dawn Kawamoto, 21 September 2004 08:45

NEWS A senior Betrusted executive has confirmed that Betrusted plans to merge with TruSecure and create a newly formed company called Cybertrust.

Siobhan MacDermott, Betrusted's senior vice president of marketing and communications, said: "We decided to merge because of the synergies between the two companies," pointing to the geographic expansion the deal will provide the companies.

TruSecure will be joined by Betrusted, which, through various acquisitions, has grown to focus on three security segments: public key infrastructure, security consulting services and managed security services such as monitoring firewalls. The deal was expected to be formally announced Tuesday in the US.

The newly combined company, Cybertrust, will focus on security management for large corporations. The new company is looking to provide greater technical expertise within certain industries and increase its market presence.

Betrusted, which operates primarily in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, will bolster its presence in North America. TruSecure will expand its global operations.

The non-cash deal between the two privately held companies is expected to close within 30 days. Other terms were not disclosed.

As part of the merger, John Becker, TruSecure chief executive, will fill the CEO post at Cybertrust.

"We did not have a permanent CEO [at Betrusted], and John was someone from inside the organisation. John also had proven management experience and proven security experience. He took Axent Technologies public and later sold it to Symantec," MacDermott noted.

Analysts applauded the merger.

John Pescatore, Internet security vice president at Gartner, said: "Some of the pieces from these two companies fit together. But this is really like separate companies coming under a single name," noting that Cybertrust will become the fifth-largest company in the US that sells only security products.

Last June, TruSecure unveiled a set of applications, Risk Commander 2.0, designed to help companies measure the effectiveness of the security of their IT systems. The software tools were part of the company's efforts to attract large corporate users, which had previously viewed the company as only a security consulting company.

The Risk Commander 2.0 was part of TruSecure's philosophy that a number of potential customers wanted security assessment systems that left the control of protected data in their own hands.

Betrusted, meanwhile, brings to the table customers that include corporations as well as government agencies in certain sectors, such as telecommunications. The company offers a managed backup service designed to provide fast and secure backup and recovery of desktop, laptop and server-based data.

Last month, Betrusted announced plans to partner with control system provider Verano. Under the arrangement, the companies would jointly market Verano's Industrial Defender, in which Betrusted would offer management and monitoring of the security system's software and applications based on security-enhanced Linux. The deal also expands Betrusted's presence in specific industries, such as utilities and transportation.

Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com