US computing giant IBM is acquiring database security company Guardium for about $200 million. The deal is a considerable success from a venture capital point of view: only $21 million have been invested in the company. The last fund raising round was held in 2006.
Guardium was founded in 2002 as a pin-off from Log-On, and since 2003 it has been based on Boston, Massachusetts, with only a small part of its activity being carried out in Israel. The company was founded by Amnon Keinan, formerly a vice president at Amdocs, and, Lior Tal, who, since leaving the company has gone on to found two other start-up companies in the information security field.
The big winners from the sale to IBM are the Ascent, Cedar, Veritas, and StageOne funds, which have achieved a rare return on their investments.
A spokesperson for IBM said that the company did not respond to rumors.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 28, 2009
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