Finnish computer security provider F-Secure has acquired venture-backed French startup Steek for €27.5M in cash with the possibility of a further performance-based payment of up to €2.5M next year.
Steek was backed by Innovacom, which financed the startup’s $4 million Series A round mid-2006 (currently converts to €2.8 million) and later joined AGF Private Equity in a $8 million Series B round (now approx. €5.7 million).
Steek offers integrated online multimedia data storage, file sharing, and automated backup solutions to individuals and SMEs. More interesting for F-Secure however is that fact that the startup boasts a strong white label operator partner network that includes major corporations like SFR (France), Virgin Media (UK), Singtel (Singapore) and Terra (Spain).
In a press release, Steek claims more than 2.2 million current active users for its services in total. The company added that it employs 50 people and saw 2008 revenues of €2.5 million with a net loss of €700,000.
Sleek will be consolidated to the F-Secure Group from the beginning of July 2009. The Group noted that it expects revenues to improve by an estimated €2-3 million and be slightly EPS dilutive. Long term, its management believes the acquisition will improve its revenues more significantly and estimates it to be EPS accretive next year already.
