Mass High Tech - December 11, 2007

NCipher buys Calif.'s NeoScale for $1.95M
Mass High Tech

NCipher Plc, a British firm that operates a U.S. headquarters in Stoneham, reports it has acquired a California company.

NCipher acquired for $1.95 million the majority of the intellectual property and assets of NeoScale Systems Inc., a provider of encryption and key management products within the storage security market.

NeoScale, a venture-backed private company based in Milpitas, Calif., provides a series of appliance-based encryption products. The company was founded in 2000.

The Stoneham office of nCipher has 25 sales and technical support employees, according to officials. The 11-year-old company operates offices in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and on the West Coast.

Last year, the $150 million acquisition of nCipher by Baltimore's SafeNet Inc. was called off following the referral of the deal to the U.K. Competition Commission for a regulatory antitrust review.

SafeNet's decision to cancel the acquisition came after the Office of Fair Trade commented on the competitive position of the two companies and the time, cost and potential disruption to business that could ensue from a referral, nCipher officials said.