BlackSpider Technologies Limited was a British software company founded in 2002 and subsequently acquired by
SurfControl in July 2006.
The Company provided
cloud computing
Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...
services for filtering
email spam
Email spam, also referred to as junk email, spam mail, or simply spam, refers to unsolicited messages sent in bulk via email. The term originates from a Spam (Monty Python), Monty Python sketch, where the name of a canned meat product, "Spam (food ...
and other
malware
Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...
.
History
BlackSpider was a
start-up company
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to ...
founded in 2002 by John Cheney in
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...
,
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
, UK.
In January 2004 Casenove Private Equity invested £4.6m ($6.6m) in the business, allowing the organisation to grow into the French and German markets.
In July 2006 SurfControl, a UK listed PLC, acquired BlackSpider for £19.5m in cash.
At the point of acquisition BlackSpider had £4m in historic revenues, an operating loss of £3.1m and over 1,200 customers.
In October 2007
Websense
Forcepoint is an American multinational corporation software company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that develops computer security software and data protection, cloud access security broker, firewall and cross-domain solutions.
Forcepoint wa ...
acquired
SurfControl for approximately £204m.
Following the acquisition of SurfControl by Websense, the original BlackSpider Management Team, including John Cheney, left to foun
Workbooks.com a provider of web-based CRM software for small businesses.
Products
MailControl was the brand name for BlackSpider Technologies email filtering services. These products are now sold by
Forcepoint
Forcepoint is an American multinational corporation software company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that develops computer security software and data protection, cloud access security broker, firewall and cross-domain solutions.
Forcepoint was ...
under the brand name Hosted Email Security.
Notes
External links
Companies House UK Company Number: 04447164
Insider Article – 7 January 2004 Silicon Article Surfcontrol Catches Blackspider – 16 July 2006John Layden, The Register – 13 July 2006Websense Investor Release – 3 October 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackspider Technologies Limited
Software companies of the United Kingdom
Cloud applications