Westcon Group, Inc. and Unit 4 Agresso announce today that a
UK-based subsidiary of Westcon Group, Inc. has signed an agreement to
acquire NOXS, the value-added distribution arm of Unit 4 Agresso's
Internet and Security division.
With this acquisition, Westcon Group executes another step in its
global strategy of building strength in key areas of networking,
convergence, security and mobility in which it has an existing $2
billion business. The acquisition of NOXS positions Westcon to become
a leading multinational distributor of network security products and
solutions.
After the acquisition, Westcon's customers will have access to
NOXS' expertise, solutions and services, enabling them to bring
integrated security solutions to their networking, convergence and
mobility customers. Similarly, NOXS' customers will have access to a
broader set of opportunities in which their knowledge of solutions
such as Unified Threat Management, mobility security, network access
control and regulatory compliance have become mandatory requirements.
"The NOXS acquisition is logical and highly complementary to
Westcon's business, with very little overlap in vendors and customers"
commented Barry Shakespeare, Executive Vice President, Westcon Europe.
"Additionally, Westcon's model of building a strong value-added
distribution business around advanced technology solutions gives our
customers new business opportunities in emerging areas such as Voice
over IP security."
Jiong Shao, Senior Vice President and Senior Networking Research
Analyst at Lehman Brothers, commented "Driven by the need for
compliance and the continuing spread of security issues, the market
for network security solutions continues to grow by about 15% in the
coming years."
Harry de Smedt, Chief Executive Officer, NOXS, added: "At NOXS, we
have built an enviable expertise, customer base and range of services
in security technology that is second to none. Westcon brings a new
scale of operations to our customers and vendor partners. With their
financial strength, logistics capabilities and their multinational
programs we will have much more to offer."
"Strategically, the sale of NOXS to Westcon is a win-win for both
companies," commented Edwin van Leeuwen, Chief Financial Officer, Unit
4 Agresso. "Westcon expands its security product line, skill set and
services to become the leading security player in Europe while Unit 4
Agresso strengthens its capital base through which we can expand the
other parts of our organization to provide even more services to our
growing business software and integration customers."
After the acquisition, NOXS will continue as a dedicated division
managed by Harry de Smedt and the existing NOXS management team
reporting to Barry Shakespeare, Executive Vice President, Westcon
Europe. The definitive agreement for Westcon to acquire NOXS for up to
Eur53.25 million is subject to European Commission approval, expected
to be cleared in April.
About Westcon Group
Westcon Group, Inc. is a multi-national specialty distributor of
networking, security and communications equipment for leading
technology vendors, including Cisco Systems, Inc., Nortel Networks
Corporation and Avaya, Inc. Through its Westcon and Comstor divisions,
Westcon Group sells products and services to resellers, systems
integrators and service providers. Westcon Group has particular
expertise in the convergence of voice, data and video applications and
technologies, including voice-over Internet protocol, or VoIP,
security for networking and communications systems, remote access,
Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing
and wireless connectivity. For more information, visit
www.westcongroup.com.
