NEW YORK, USA: Cisco Systems said on Tuesday that it would buy privately held security software company ScanSafe for about $183 million to expand in a fast-growing segment of the Web-based security market.

Cisco said the deal, whose price tag includes cash and retention-based incentives, would close, subject to various conditions, in the second quarter of its 2010 fiscal year.

ScanSafe provides a wide range of companies, including small businesses and global enterprises, with software-as-a-service (SaaS), a model of software deployment where applications are licensed to customers for use as a service on demand.

SaaS software vendors may host the application on their own Web servers or download the application to the consumer device.