Clearswift has been ploughing away since gaining backing from Lyceum Capital towards the end of 2011, when Martin Leuw (ex-Iris CEO) was appointed chairman (see here). Roughly 12 months later there was a new CEO – Heath Davies (whose credits include trying to get Alterian back on its feet prior to its acquisition by SDL, see here– plus a slew of new senior management appointments. The product set has also been strengthened. Now the revitalised company has made its first acquisition.
Clearswift specialises in the high growth area of content aware data loss prevention (DLP). The acquisition of the intellectual property of Australian Jedda Systems slots right it because its end point DLP complements Clearswift’s content aware network DLP, which is integrated into its Web and Email Gateway solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Jedda has c10 staff and the market estimates revenue in the $1m-$5m range – closer to the lower end we would imagine – so it will be easily digestible.
Despite c30 years in business the UK-based company has not made it into the big time. With security high on the CIO agenda (see Security Opportunities in a cloud and mobile world), this could be its best chance to breakthrough. UK and European specialists like Sophos and Kaspersky are doing well on rising awareness of cyber threats. With 7% organic growth in FY13 taking revenue to £20.8m, and EDITDA of £4.7m (up over 200%), plus a batch of blue chip customers in government, defence and the private sector, Clearswift is not doing badly but there is more potential.
Developments like policy-based Adaptive Redaction and deep content inspection will open up new opportunities. Clearswift will continue to appeal to large organisations with heavy-duty compliance requirements but the automated aspects of its technology should also open up the untapped mid-market. The market is there, it is down to Clearswift to secure it.