Carlsbad, CA-based BeyondTrust, a network security company focused on protecting public companies against attacks from within, says it has acquired eEye Digital Security, a Phoenix, AZ-based company that helps defend networks from external threats.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Both companies are private.
Since moving to the San Diego area three years ago, BeyondTrust has targeted the global market of top public companies with software that controls user privileges on enterprise networks—and helps to protect against disgruntled employees and rogue IT system administrators. Its technology also helps public companies document their compliance with tightened regulations for managing internal financial controls, risk, and corporate governance.
Founded in 1998, eEye provides enterprise software, appliances, and services to help organizations protect their assets—including mobile, virtual, and data stored in the cloud.
While eEye is based in Phoenix, most of its employees work in Irvine, CA—less than 50 miles north of Carlsbad—according to Jim Zierick, an executive vice president at BeyondTrust. One of eEye’s key products discovers all the devices on a particular network, including network servers, desktop computers, laptops, and other devices. “It inquires how each one is configured, and determines whether that configuration is vulnerable to attack,” Zierick said.
Combining their respective technologies will enable customers to determine how vulnerable a user’s computer might be to malicious software, and to assess the user’s privileges and the sensitivity of data stored on the machine. eEye has more than 10,000 customers around the world, including small-to-medium businesses and government agencies.
The two companies already have been working together as partners, but Zierick said only about 20 percent of their businesses overlap. “There is definitely an opportunity here to expand each other’s customer base and to expose our customers to each other’s products.
The combined company will have more than 250 employees worldwide, including 100 in research and development, and is expected to generate about $70 million in annual revenue. When I talked with BeyondTrust in 2010, CEO John Mutch told me the company had about 85 employees and was generating about $50 million a year in sales.
