Huge Exit – Cisco Announces Agreement to Acquire Sourcefire for $2.7 billion

Whilst not exactly an overnight success Sourcefire seems to have been a massive exit for its owners and investors, given the company achieved revenue of $223 million and net revenue of $24m a purchase price of $2.7 billion is amazing.

Originally launched in 2001 by Martin Roesch, the creator of Snort the open source network intrusion prevention system (NIPS) and network intrusion detection system (NIDS) Sourcefire became known as one of the top security product lines in the industry winning numerous awards and very loyal customers.

The company’s initial growth was funded through four separate rounds of financing raising a total of $56.5 million from venture capitalists, over the last 13 years there have been numerous attempts to acquire the company both prior to listing and then after listing as well.

In 2005, Check Point attempted to acquire Sourcefire for $225 million but the offer was withdrawn due to regulatory issues and the company completed an IPO in 2007 raising $86.3 million.

In May 2008, Sourcefire rejected an offer of $187 million from security appliance vendor Barracuda Networks.

The purchase price was a combination of shares, cash and retention performance payments.