Symark International Monday is announcing the acquisition of BeyondTrust for approximately $20 million in a deal that brings together two privately-held access control product vendors. Under the deal, Symark is adopting the BeyondTrust name.

Based in Agoura Hills, Calif., Symark sells a line of software access-control products intended for Linux and Unix systems, while BeyondTrust, based in Portsmouth, N.H., focuses on Windows.

John Mutch, CEO of Symark, said the merger creates a company with 125 employees and a customer base of 750 global customers.

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The product strategy calls for gradually bringing the Windows and Linux/Unix access-control products that each firm has separately offered under a common management platform and console.

This process is expected to begin in October and extend into the second half of next year.

BeyondTrust’s Privilege Manager software for Windows desktops can be used to remove administrative rights, a process that can reduce the chances of malware impacting Windows applications and operating systems. The software also allows for the creation of a standard desktop configuration and can prevent unlicensed software from being installed.

In contrast, Symark’s PowerBroker is used to establish consistent access-control rights for Linux and Unix, and to delegate root and special account privileges to various system administrators without disclosing the root password.

By Ellen Messmer