Eircom has acquired 30 per cent of Viasec, a Donegal-based e-mail security specialist, for a sum believed to be worth about £1.5 million (€1.9 million). Viasec was known as Inflow up to two weeks ago.
Viasec's managing director Mr David Doherty said negotiations with Eircom, then Telecom Eireann, started last November. "By April we knew we'd do a deal. But it wasn't signed until after the black-out period [during Telecom's flotation in July]." He said the deal had not been publicised at that time as it would have been "swallowed up" in the publicity surrounding the flotation.
The beneficiaries of the deal are Mr Doherty and the company's technical director, Mr Maurice McMullen, who held 80 per cent of the capital, and Harvest Financial Services, an investment company, which owned 20 per cent on behalf a group of business people.
Mr Doherty and Mr McMullen, both aged 36, made about £1.2 million from the pro rata purchase of 30 per cent of their shares, while Harvest gained £300,000.
Eircom has no plans to increase its shareholding in Viasec, a spokeswoman said.
Mr Doherty said he did not require a further investment from Eircom. "We wanted to be left doing what we want to do."
Viasec plans to use Eircom's investment to aggressively market its Consus product, a strongly encrypted piece of business grade secure e-mail gateway software, designed to eliminate exposure to potential risks on the Internet. "It's all about driving up market share. That's the whole point," said Mr Doherty.
Viasec plans to introduce another product, Archiver, in December. This will enable firms to trace all records of internal and external e-mail communications.
Mr Doherty and Mr McMullen founded the company in 1995. Viasec does not reveal profit or turnover details, although Mr Doherty said turnover had doubled each year since the company started trading.
He said the company now employed 50 workers, between software engineers, marketing, sales and administrative staff. This had increased from nine workers in early 1998. Mr Doherty said the company hoped to employ another 250 workers in the next year.
Mr Doherty said Viasec was planning a initial public offering (IPO) of its stock within 18 months. Although no investment banker has been appointing to manage an IPO, he said the firm was planning a dual flotation on the Nasdaq exchange in New York and in London.
"We're in the business where you either get bought or buy other firms. We'd rather buy than be bought. The whole Internet thing is about not being afraid to take a few risks."
Inflow had changed its name to Viasec due to difficulties with a similar trademark in the US.
Based in Donegal town, Viasec has offices in London, Munich, Boston and San Jose. These would be used as building blocks for a global presence, said Mr Doherty.
