ASX-listed web hosting specialist, WebCentral, has acquired a 50 per cent share in messagecare for an undisclosed fee.

The deal will see WebCentral supporting messagecare through its current commercialisation period, which is expected to be completed next year, and collaborating on future developments.

An Australian spam filtering and monitoring provider, messagecare is best known for its flagship Spam Trap product, which uses four databases to check incoming emails.

WebCentral CEO, Lloyd Ernst, said the acquisition was more important than the addition of a service because of the industry experience and knowledge of global spam trends within the messagecare senior management team, which would prove to be invaluable in formulating customer strategies.

“Spam Trap will complement our existing product range well, extending our capabilities in the premium email sphere,” he said.

His views were echoed by messagecare CEO, Andrew Kent, who said there were obvious advantages for both parties.

“WebCentral does email provision for customers such as Queensland Education and found it had some issues in its network regarding spam management and virus protection," he said. "We have filtering technology that can address those problems.

“As Australia’s largest Web hosting company, Web Central is ideally placed to be a leader in spam control and we are excited about the opportunities this strategic alliance presents.”

Kent said messagecare, which provides retail and wholesale spam filtering solutions, had already attracted plenty of interest from major ISPs.