Marshal, 8e6 Technologies merge to form Marshal8e6

Internet security vendors Marshal and 8e6 Technologies Wednesday announced that they have merged under the banner of a new company, Marshal8e6.

Marshal focuses on e-mail filtering and 8e6 on Web filtering, and the combined revenue of the privately held companies is roughly $50 million and 250 employees. Ed Macnair, formerly CEO of Marshal and now chief strategy officer for Marshal8e6, says he anticipated the combined firms will be sharing sales and technology assets, which are largely complementary.

(View a slideshow on the hottest tech M&A deals of 2008.)

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Internet security vendors Marshal and 8e6 Technologies Wednesday announced that they have merged under the banner of a new company, Marshal8e6.

Marshal focuses on e-mail filtering and 8e6 on Web filtering, and the combined revenue of the privately held companies is roughly $50 million and 250 employees. Ed Macnair, formerly CEO of Marshal and now chief strategy officer for Marshal8e6, says he anticipated the combined firms will be sharing sales and technology assets, which are largely complementary.

(View a slideshow on the hottest tech M&A deals of 2008.)

"Only 25% of our business is in the U.S.," says Macnair, noting the remainder originates in Northern Europe and the Australian/New Zealand area. Conversely, 90% of 8e6 technologies originate in the United States, where it has a strong presence in the education market segment among schools that use its technology for Web filtering.

George Shih, a founder and CEO at 8e6 Technologies, will be interim CEO until a new CEO is named, which the company expects to do shortly. Shih will remain as president of the Americas Division of Marshal8e6. Simon Wilson is being named as new chairman of the firm.

Marshal86 expects to maintain its U.K. headquarters in Basingstoke, Hampshire and its U.S. corporate headquarters in Orange, Calif.

There are no immediate plans to discontinue the current 8e6 or Marshal products, but technology plans do call for integrating the 86 Technologies' URL library for Web filtering in to the Marshall e-mail products in the near future.

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