Marshal comes into town

Content security vendor Marshal will open offices in Sydney within the next three months and is on the hunt for new partners.

Marshal CEO Ed Macnair, said the company had a presence in Australia following the buy-back of Marshal from NetIQ in 2002 and wants to operate its sales force for the Asia Pacific region from Sydney.

“In December 2002 we sold the company for US$23 million to Nasdaq-listed NetIQ. In December 2005 we bought it back for an undisclosed sum,” he said.

According to Mcnair, NetIQ agreed to sell-back Marshal products including; MailMarshal; WebMarshal; Security Reporting Center and Firewall Suite. Marshal’s buy-out of the products was backed by Kelso Place Asset management, a London-based private equity firm.

“It was an amicable separation. When we sold Marshal to NetIQ we had 6000 customers. During the time at NetIQ we had almost tripled our customer base to 17,000,” said Macnair.

NetIQ chairman and CEO Chuck Boesenberg said the Marshal products weren't integral to its strategy. By divesting them, we would be able to accelerate our corporate plans.”

Mcnair said the company’s difference of approach in selling products also contributed to the buy-back.

He said NetIQ sold its products directly to customers, where as Marshal was focused on a traditional channel strategy.

“With very strong sales in Malaysia and Singapore we feel it’s the right time to set up a presence in Australia for Asia-Pacific.

“We want to work with resellers looking to provide security solutions to targeted sectors like government, finance, legal and education,” he said. “We are also looking for a presence in the SMB market.”

The company was founded in New Zealand in 1997, where the research and development is headquartered. It has offices in Europe, US and soon Australia. Express Data is the distributor of its products and Data3 and WebSecure were the resellers.

Executives at NetIQ’s Australian office weren’t available for comment on the sale.