Cisco To Buy OpenDNS For £400m In Cash

Cisco will buy privately-held security firm OpenDNS for $635 million (£400m), buffing its cyber security capabilities.

San Francisco-based OpenDNS is best known for its DNS service that protects users by monitoring all domain name requests.

Security, everywhere

Cisco said that the acquisition will boost its ‘Security Everywhere’ approach” by adding broad visibility and threat intelligence from the OpenDNS cloud delivered platform”.

“As more people, processes, data and things become connected, opportunities for security breaches and malicious threats grow exponentially when away from secure enterprise networks,” said Hilton Romanski, Cisco chief technology officer.

“OpenDNS has a strong team with deep security expertise and key technology that complements Cisco’s security vision. Together, we will help customers protect their extended network wherever the user is and regardless of the device.”

OpenDNS, which was founded in 2005 by David Ulevitch, justified the purchase by claiming that with Cisco’s help, OpenDNS’ goals for having a global reach can be met.

A post on its website read: “Today, more than 65 million people use OpenDNS every day for a safer and faster Internet, including thousands of companies from Fortune 500’s to small businesses. But we are just scratching the surface of the online population and everybody needs better security. With Cisco’s incredible global reach, resources, and technologies we believe we can to accelerate our vision of helping people connect with confidence on any device, anywhere, anytime.”

The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of fiscal year 2016. OpenDNS founder Ulevitch said in a blog post this morning that the acquisition will continue OpenDNS’ commitment to its customers.