Cisco Acquires Desktop Security Company

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March 12, 2004 (10:45 AM EST)

Cisco Systems Inc. on Friday said it has agreed to acquire privately held Twingo Systems, which sells desktop security software for virtual private networks.

Under the deal, Cisco will pay about $5 million in cash for the Mountain View, Calif., company. The acquisition is scheduled to close in the third quarter, with Twingo becoming part of Cisco's VPN and Security Business Unit.

Twingo's desktop product is for Secure Socket Layer VPNs. SSL is the leading security protocol on the Internet. Cisco plans to incorporate the technology in its WebVPN product line, beginning with the Cisco VPN 3000 Concentrator series.

Among the benefits of Twingo's software is the ability to fully erasing history files, temporary files, caches, cookies, e-mail file attachments and other downloaded data at the close of an SSL VPN user session. In addition, it delivers connectivity that does not falter due to variations in browser security settings or client system administrative privileges, officials with San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco said.

"Cisco's acquisition of Twingo Systems further emphasizes our commitment to endpoint security and complements our on-going development efforts in Network Admission Control and the Cisco Security Agent for assessing desktop security posture and delivering endpoint threat prevention," Richard Palmer, vice president and general manager of Cisco's VPN and Security Business Unit, said in a statement.