Cybercom buys Nexus Consulting and forms the Nordics' largest IT security consultancy

Cybercom signed a contract with Nexus for acquisition of Nexus Consulting. The IT security market for products and services is skyrocketing. Via the acquisition, Cybercom creates an unrivalled IT security competence centre.

"IT security is one of our most business-critical areas of expertise," says Anders Franzén, MD of Cybercom in Stockholm. "For quite some time, we've worked with IT security-system solution development and consulting for finance- and public-sector customers. Via the Nexus Consulting acquisition, we increase our expertise in the IT security area. Nexus has many established technology niches that expand Cybercom's existing IT security service portfolio."

Nexus Consulting is one of Sweden's leading players in information and IT security consulting services. This operation is part of Technology Nexus, which was launched in 1984. Nexus Consulting has 43 employees and annual sales of SEK 60 million. Via the acquisition means Cybercom now employs about 400 consultants in Stockholm.

Technology Nexus AB owns Nexus Consulting and will hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting on 9 April to get approval of the acquisition. Both companies' boards support the deal. Takeover will occur on 10 April 2008. The purchase price is SEK 30 million, with a supplementary purchase price (based on 2008 profit) that may not exceed SEK 5 million.

"Via Cybercom, we get a stable, international, growth-oriented owner with consulting as its core operation," says Björn Lindeberg, MD of Nexus Consulting. "Cybercom is a renowned security expert. And with us, Cybercom creates a position as a clear market leader in IT security within the Nordics, an operation with capacity to take on large, international projects."

IT security is one area that's been greatly affected by changes to standards and guidelines. And much is happening in this area right now . . .

"One example is an information-security management system that went into effect in Sweden's public sector on 1 January 2008," says Tomas Rimming, IT security division manager at Cybercom. "Another is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act – a law that puts rigorous demands on information security and affects all US stock-exchange-listed companies and their subsidiaries. Now we have totally new opportunities to help our customers – and not just with guidelines and policies. We also take a leading position in IT forensics, that is, sophisticated analyses of IT-related crime. Here, we're the only operation in the Nordics to have acquired certification linked to the Mastercard and Visa payment card industry data security standard. With Nexus Consulting, we become a one-stop shop for all IT security needs."