TippingPoint Technologies was an American computer hardware and software company active between 1999 and 2015. Its focus was on network security products, particularly

intrusion prevention system An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a device or software application that monitors a network or systems for malicious activity or policy violations. Any intrusion activity or violation is typically either reported to an administrator or collec ...

s for networks. In 2015, it was acquired by

Trend Micro is an American-Japanese cyber security software company. The company has globally dispersed R&D in 16 locations across every continent excluding Antarctica. The company develops enterprise security software for servers, containers, and cloud ...

History

The company was founded in January 1999 under the name Shbang! in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Its co-founders were John F. McHale, Kent A. Savage (first chief executive), and Kenneth A. Kalinoski. Its business was to develop and sell Internet appliances. In May 1999, the company changed its name to Netpliance and in November they released the i-Opener, a low-cost computer intended for browsing the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

. The hardware was sold at a loss, and costs were recouped through a subscription service plan. When the device was found to be easily modded to avoid the service plan, Netpliance changed the terms of sale to charge a termination fee. In 2001, the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...

fined the company $100,000 for inaccurate advertising and unfair billing of customers. In 2002, the company discontinued operations of its internet appliance business and renamed itself TippingPoint. CEO Savage was replaced by chairman of the board McHale. McHale stepped down in 2004, but remained chairman of the board. The position was filled by Kip McClanahan, former CEO of BroadJump. In January 2005, TippingPoint was acquired by the network equipment company 3Com for $442 million, operating as a division of 3Com led by James Hamilton (TippingPoint President), later replaced by Alan Kessler. 3Com itself was subsequently acquired by computer manufacturer

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

in April 2010 for approximately $2.7 billion. On October 21, 2015, TippingPoint was acquired by

for approximately $300 million.

Technology

The TippingPoint NGIPS is a network Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) deals with IT threat protection. It combines application-level security with user awareness and inbound/outbound messaging inspection capabilities, to protect the user's

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

, network, and

data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

from threats. In September 2013, HP announced that it entered the next-generation firewall market with a new line of TippingPoint firewalls. The line extends TippingPoint's existing IPS appliances with traditional stateful packet filtering and application control.

References

;Notes *
Trend Micro To Acquire HP TippingPoint For $300M
''hp.com''

External links

SEC search on netpliance
{{DEFAULTSORT:TippingPoint American companies established in 1999 American companies disestablished in 2015 Companies based in Austin, Texas Database security Hewlett-Packard acquisitions HP software Static program analysis tools Defunct computer companies based in California Defunct software companies of the United States Software companies established in 1999 Software companies disestablished in 2015 2015 mergers and acquisitions Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies