Marshal8e6 changes name to M86 Security
Less confusing.
By John Dunn | Techworld | Published: 12:02, 02 September 2009
Web and email filtering company Marshal8e6 has changed its name for the second time in a year, and will from now on be known as M86 Security.
The company was created less than a year ago by combining the US-based Marshal with the UK-founded 8e6 Technologies, but has since added the engineering core of the tiny but potentially interesting email scanning startup, Avinti, for an undisclosed sum.
M86's international president, Bruce Green, explained that the company had always had in mind the possibility of changing its name once the dust had settled on the November 2008 merger.
Related Articles on Techworld
"It was always the longer-term intention. The view was that we would think of a new brand," he said.
The news dovetails with the announcement of the first products that merge technologies from the two original companies, WebMarshal 6.5, available now, and MailMarshal 6.7, available from October. M86 Security products would now use the original 8e6 Technologies' URL filtering database where Marshal's products had once used bought-in technology, Green confirmed.
The company has also retained the threat labs from each of its constituent companies, merging them into a single entity, M86 Security Labs.
The company will hope to put confusion over its name behind it. The original 8e6 Technologies had to bat away queries about how to pronounce its unusual name, an annoyance that lived on to a less degree with the succeeding name, Marshal8e6. M86 Security is clearer even if UK users might puzzle over the name's connection to the UK's network of highways, which always use the designation 'M' (for motorway) followed by a number.
