Cisco Acquires Security Vendor For $43 Million

Cisco Systems said Thursday that its $43.7 million acquisition of Meetinghouse Data Communications will enable it to provide a unified solution to enterprise customers using wired and wireless networks.

Cisco said Meetinghouse's 802.1X supplicant security software permits enterprise users to restrict network access to authorized users.

Meetinghouse was founded in 1988 by serial entrepreneur Paul Goransson. In 1999, Goransson sold Qosnetics, a firm he co-founded, to Hewlett-Packard, which later spun the operation off as a part of Agilent Technologies.

"The Meetinghouse software supplicant is a natural extension to existing Cisco initiatives such as the Cisco Self-Defending Network via Network Admission Control and the Cisco Compatible Extensions program," said Cisco's Brett Galloway in a statement. Galloway, who also observed that unauthorized network accesses are growing, is vice president and general manager, Wireless Networking Business Unit at Cisco.

Meetinghouse's AEGIS Endpoint Security Management and SecureConnect products operate with identity-based 802.1X endpoint networks. The Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based firm has 77 employees.