Clearswift acquisition to further boost growth

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 30 November 2011 16:02

IT Industry - Deals

Global digital security software vendor, Clearswift, has been acquired by mid-market growth investor Lyceum Capital, in a deal that will see increased focus on Clearswift's content-aware security products as the newly cashed-up company pursues further market growth.

Led by Clearswift's chief executive officer, Richard Turner, the deal will see Lyceum take a significant majority stake, with Lyceum Partners Jeremy Hand and David Harland joining the company's board. The acquisition from a group of investors including Amadeus Capital Partners, DFJ Esprit and Kennet, takes Lyceum's total deal value in the IT industry to over £100 million so far this year.

Martin Leuw also joins the Clearswift board, as chairman to guide the business though its next phase of organic and acquisitive growth. Software entrepreneur Leuw is the former CEO of IRIS Software, which, under his leadership grew from an enterprise value of £30 million to over £500 million in 10 years, transforming it into one of the UK's largest privately-owned technology companies.

Turner said the company has a diverse and international range of approximately 17,000 customers in around 50 countries and has a strong footprint in the defence, law and order and government sectors. Customers include BAE Systems, Hitachi Solutions, An Post, Warwick District Council, T-Mobile and Australia Post, with sales predominantly made through Clearswift's worldwide network of channel partners.

Clearswift operates in the £2.6 billion e-mail and web gateway subsector of the larger security software market, which is expected to achieve a CAGR of 6.8 per cent from 2010 to 2015, according to Ovum.

According to Turner, 'threats and risks are increasingly becoming specific to individual customers and need a tailored, more flexible approach. The one size fits all anti-spam and anti-virus technologies many companies rely on is out-dated.'

Turner said that with its heritage in both content inspection and flexible compliance policies backed up by excellent service, Clearswift is 'well positioned to meet customer needs in a world where social media and web technologies are rapidly transforming the way we all do business.'

The Lyceum-Clearswift transaction follows Lyceum's recent investments in the technology sector including its £30 million acquisition of leading managed IT services provider Adapt in September, and £50 million investment in Access, a SaaS (software as a service) based accounting and ERP software and services business, which completed in March.