Financial terms have not been disclosed, but the new company – based on 2012 figures – will be worth $140 million in bookings and comprise more than 500 employees with 7000 customers in 96 different countries. This will make it a major player in its field, ranking with the likes of IBM, EMC, Symantec and McAfee.
While the two companies have been competitors at one level, their products do not entirely overlap. Bringing them together provides greater strength in applying a risk management approach to vulnerability management. It’s a natural move, said Gidi Cohen, founder and CEO of Skybox Security. “You can expect next-generation solutions that combine vulnerability data with other security management capabilities, such as threat management, to supplant traditional technologies and take a leadership role in the market.”
"It`s difficult to mitigate attacks without understanding vulnerabilities and assessing that resources allocated to IT security are spent wisely," said Charles Kolodgy, research vice president, security products at IDC. "Organizations must also be able to maintain an optimal security posture. The combined solutions will enable Tripwire to advance the state of the art in risk-based security management.”
Jim Johnson, CEO of Tripwire, says the new company will be “uniquely positioned to align security posture with business objectives, a crucial step in making security and risk meaningful and actionable across the enterprise.”
It is expected that the nCircle name will be dropped as relevant parts are absorbed and merged with Tripwire products. Some parts of nCircle will be maintained, however; such as nCircle’s agentless vulnerability-assessment and configuration management (Tripwire’s product is agent-based). Network World notes that Johnson has said the two product lines fit together well. “Sometimes customers prefer one or the other approach, Johnson said, and over time there will be deeper and deeper integration of the nCircle Suite360 agentless product line into Tripwire products and services, which today include Tripwire Enterprise, Log Center and Data Mart.”
Tripwire was acquired by investment firm Thoma Bravo in May 2011 with a commitment to grow the company. "This is step one of many acquisitions to come," Johnson said.