I had the chance to get caught up with Radialpoint this week. As you may know, the company's offerings currently include a range of desktop security services, including anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, privacy manager, fraud protection, parental controls, backup and restore, PC optimizer and pop-up blocker. Radialpoint customers include leading broadband carriers such as Verizon in the U.S., Virgin Media in Europe, and Bell Canada and TELUS in Canada.

We've been following Radialpoint for some time now for its role in a couple of key areas. Michael Cai in particular has been following them as their work relates to value-added services creation for broadband service providers. His coverage included the report issued earlier this year titled Enabling Solutions for a Rich Broadband Experience. Jordan Socran, Senior Director, Business Development, was also a panelist on Michael's panel at our CONNECTIONS™ conference. He spoke on a panel called Carriers as "Experience Providers."

Although Radialpoint is commonly referred to as a provider of managed security services (provided by broadband operators), the company is really in the business of providing a full suite of value-added services as well as a delivery platform for them. In this sense, we're told that we should expect some announcements soon related to their service expansions. In the meantime, they are quite busy with their core managed security services. A couple of weeks ago, Verizon put out a release, using the start of Cyber Security Awareness Month to remind customers of their security offerings - which are provided by Radialpoint.

Radialpoint tells us that the uptake of their managed security offerings is changing as we had predicted with Managing the Digital Home: Installation and Support Services. We had found in that study that consumers who were later broadband adopters were more likely to be early customers to such broadband value-added services as managed security or customer care. After all, these are the later-adopters, for whom technology can be intimidating. Indeed, Radialpoint found that their early market was heavily reliant on these new broadband subscribers. However, they note that they've seen a shift in the last couple of years to existing customers. With more service providers engaged in care services (take Verizon's Expert Care or AT&T's Support 360 as just two examples), Radialpoint is seeing a natural harmony between these support offerings and what they're doing on the Internet security side.

Late in September, Radialpoint announced an investment of C$98 million from private equity group TA Associates. The press release indicates that Radialpoint will be using the investment to grow its business by investing in investing in new products and services.