Cisco's New Opportunity - Acquisition of IronPort

As an analyst, I've found that the results of acquisitions are almost always disappointing. The acquired company is sky-high, flushed with impending wealth and visions of industry dominance with the resources of the larger company, while the acquiring company struts its stuff and positions the new company as a strategic new product line. Then reality sets in. The new company disappears while its technology is retrofitted to integrate with the acquirer’s security management and UI schemes. Good, creative people become de-motivated and leave when they realize that they have become small fish in a big pond. After a year or two, the market has moved on, the exciting technology has fallen behind the competition, and the acquisition is considered a bust by all except those who authorized the deal.

Trust me on this one. I see it all the time. Is there anyone out there who really believes CipherTrust will thrive as part of Secure Computing? Has anyone seen Zone Labs lately?

Which brings us to Cisco's acquisition of IronPort earlier this month. One of the reasons I like this deal is that Cisco does a really good job with acquisitions. For one, it treats the people well and retains the top talent. It’s been years since the Okena purchase, and the core engineering talent for Cisco Security Agent is still together.