McAfee and Secure assure partners that it's business as usual

McAfee and Secure Computing have assured partners it’s business as usual after McAfee announced plans to acquire the security appliance vendor for $US465 million.

Local McAfee marketing director, Alan Bell, said the acquisition would make it one of the largest network security players in the market. Secure Computing will become part of McAfee’s network security business unit, which will be headed by Secure CEO, Dan Ryan. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Bell said it had not yet worked out how the deal would affect McAfee’s channel relationships. McAfee products are distributed locally by Ingram Micro and Westcon Group.

“We’ll be catching up with the local Secure Computing people to get a sense of what the integration will mean, but at this stage, it’s just business as usual,” he said. “We’ve known Eric [Krieger, Secure Computing country manager] for quite a while and I think it’s a good match.”

Krieger said the next three months would be around finalising the commercial and legal transaction.

Secure Computing recently ended its relationship with Blue Sky Industries in favour of a sole enterprise distribution agreement with itX. The vendor also has distributors for its lower-end products including Techplus Distribution, MPA Systems and Bax IT.

“I don’t think it’s going to make any major changes to our distribution partners,” Krieger said. “I’ve already spoken to our partners and we’ve reassured them that it’s business as usual.”

Distributors were mostly supportive of the acquisition and confident it would open up new sales opportunities. Westcon Group sales director, Leigh Howard, gave McAfee’s acquisition the thumbs up. The distributor also works with Secure Computing in the US and Canadian market.

“Strengthening their network security business is the right thing for them,” he said. “There’s also an opportunity for us to expand our business and footprint with McAfee as a result of the acquisition.”

itX general manager, Greg Newham, wasn’t surprised Secure had been an acquisitions target and said the vendor had a solid product line-up.

“I don’t know what it’s going to mean for us specifically at this point, it’s just way too early to tell,” he said.

Techplus managing director, Paul Kern, claimed to be one of Secure Computing’s top distributors in the region and also reckoned the acquisition could potentially enhance its sales.