NCC Group’s latest acquisition, of US security testing services provider Matasano Security, is designed to expand its US footprint and provide clients with testing services capable of spanning Europe and US. With 69% of its business coming from the UK, moves that support its international reach make perfect sense.
NCC will pay up to £8.4m in cash for the company (with £4.2m up front). Matasano was founded in 2005 and achieved revenue of $5m in the year to June 30 2012. It will be immediately earnings enhancing but NCC is not saying more than that. The acquisition is NCC’s eight in the network testing and software security space and its second purchase in North America (iSec being the other one – see here). As well as creating a presence for NCC on the East coast of America, Matasano will also bring “numerous blue chip organisations”. The US business also says 95% of its revenue is derived from the IT, internet, banking and insurance sectors, which will appeal to NCC as security testing is a critical operation in these areas.
The acquisition follows a positive financial year for NCC with organic growth as well as growth via acquisitions, and further indications that it has got the troubled testing side of the business under control (see Strong year for NCC Group, despite software disaster). It has been promising to extend its testing services beyond the UK for a couple of years now but from what we can see, it has been held back with internal problems, including high staff turnover within the testing business. It looks like those problems are over now and it can focus on international expansion.