Cisco Systems, Inc. announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Okena, Inc., based in Waltham, MA, USA, against Cisco common stock worth approximately USD 154 million.
Private Equity Holding AG will benefit from this sale through its investment in a venture fund managed by Newbury Ventures, one of the investors in Okena Inc., and expects to receive an undisclosed distribution.
Okena is a security software company that has developed a novel approach to protecting network servers and personal computers from destructive software intrusions that get past the protective layers of firewalls and virus detection software. The company has developed a host-based intrusion protection system called StormWatch. StormWatch can protect any system, such as file servers, web servers and desktops from a virus infecting a system or preventing web pages from being modified. While traditional virus protection systems need signatures to block new attacks, StormWatch is unique in that it resides inside the operating system, monitoring system behavior using pre-defined policies and rules that specify expected application behavior, thus enabling StormWatch to block the behavioral effects of undetected virus intrusions.
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Private Equity Holding AG (SWX: PEHN), managed by Swiss Life Private Equity Partners, offers investors the opportunity to invest, within a simple legal and tax optimized structure, in a broadly diversified and professionally managed private equity portfolio. As of December 31, 2002, the company held fund investments in 85 funds and direct investments in 23 companies. For further information: www.peh.ch or Eva Kalias, Investor Relations and Communications (phone +41 41 726 79 80).