FI Software buys Clearwater tech company Sunbelt Software
A North Carolina software developer has picked up Sunbelt Software Inc., which employs 250 people in Clearwater and offices around the world. The sale will soon create a spin-off company offering Sunbelt’s software distribution business.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
GFI Software, based in Cary, N.C., was most interested in Sunbelt’s Vipre technology, which the software infrastructure products provider said it could use in its e-mail security and Web security services group, according to a release.
Alex Eckelberry, Sunbelt’s chief executive officer, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal in an e-mail that the extent of the impact the acquisition will have has not been worked out yet. He will remain with the newly merged company, as will Mark Patton as vice president of research and development, Eric Sites as chief technology officer, and Bill Emerick as senior vice president of products and services.
Sunbelt co-founder Stu Sjouwerman will retire but remain with Sunbelt’s various publications including WServerNews, Win7News and SecurityNews online payday loans.
“It’s an exciting day for us here at Sunbelt, and I believe sincerely that this acquisition was in the best interests of all parties,” Eckelberry said. “Not only our shareholders and employees, but most importantly, our customers and partners.”
Both companies are working to integrate various sales, marketing, finance and technology teams.
“Our goal is to make the combination as seamless as possible to our customers and partners,” Eckelberry said.
GFI already has plans to sell Sunbelt’s software distribution business, which was started more than 16 years ago and has operated separately from the technology side of the company, it said in a release.
Sunbelt Software, a TBBJ Best Places to Work finalist last year, presented at the Florida Venture Forum’s 2009 Venture Capital Conference in Naples. The company was founded in 1994.