VCs bow out as UK’s MessageLabs is acquired for $695M cash

Sale

Anti-virus specialist Symantec is to acquire the UK online messaging and Web security services MessageLabs for $695 million in cash, a healthy exit for the main shareholders, brothers Ben and Jos White, who founded the company in 1999 and the venture capital investors, Catalyst Investors and Prospect Investment Management. 

Symantec said the move would give it a position in Software-as-a-Service and strengthen its hold in the messaging security market. MessageLabs is the leading provider of online messaging security worldwide, with more than eight million end users at more than 19,000 client companies.

John W. Thompson, chairman and chief executive officer, Symantec said, “By combining MessageLabs with our Symantec Protection Network team, we have one of the strongest portfolios of cloud-based infrastructure services and a great foundation on which to grow.”

MessageLabs was founded by the White brothers in Gloucester, UK, in 1999 and provides a range of managed security services to protect, control, encrypt and archive communications across email, web and instant messaging.