IBM to buy start-up Guardium for $225 mn

TELAVIV, ISRAEL: IBM, the world's biggest technology services company, is expected to announce this week the acquisition of database security start-up Guardium for $225 million, Israeli financial newspaper TheMarker reported.

The deal is due to close on Monday and will then be announced to the public, TheMarker said on Sunday.

Guardium started as an Israeli firm in 2002 but moved to Boston in 2003. It has about 60 employees and all will profit from the sale, TheMarker cited a source close to the company as saying.

The company had raised $21 million from venture capital funds such as Ascent Venture Partners, Israel's StageOne Ventures and Veritas, and Cisco Systems, the paper said.

Guardium is a subsidiary of Israel's Log-On Software. Officials at Log-On declined to comment on the report.

Guardium's product enables companies to extend the use of corporate applications to customers, partners and providers while ensuring that the databases used by those applications are shielded.