HYDERABAD : Although dwarfed by Sabeer Bhatia's $400-million Hotmail sale in a market at its peak, three US-based Hyderabadis are selling their start-up for $250 million at a time when such deals are a rarity. The Hyderabadi trio -- Sam Srinivas, Shyam Davuluru and Surya Koneru -- are selling Neoteris, an Internet security company, to Netscreen Technologies, a Nasdaq-listed company. Since its inception, Neoteris has caught the eye of market analysts for its innovation in providing security solutions for virtual private networks (VPNs). Led by core team members Krishna 'Kittu' Kolluri, another Hyderabadi, and Alok Kothari, the company's India head, Neoteris quickly secured much needed funding, to the tune of $37.5 million, from the industry's three leading investment firms. "Neoteris has not only pioneered the rapidly growing secure socket layer technology in the VPN market, but also emerged as a market leader with over 36 per cent of market share," Kolluri said. Neoteris attracted the interest of Netscreen, a leading developer of integrated network security solutions, as wares developed by the former would help in expanding its existing product offering. On Monday, Netscreen, which has $240 million in revenues, sent across a $295-million proposal to acquire Neoteris. As part of the deal, which according to Kolluri the Neoteris techies were very happy to accept, Netscreen has agreed to pay $245 million in stock and $20 million in cash. However, another $30 million will be paid upon reaching specified milestones, which are still being worked out. As part of the stock deal, all the stakeholders of Neoteris will get 10.9 million shares of Netscreen, which is quoting at $23.50 on the Nasdaq. However, the swap ratio was worked out with $22.44 as the benchmark value. All the founders of the company have also been offered key positions in Netscreen. While Sam Srinivas will become vice-president (product management) of Netscreen, Shyam Davuluru will be the director (engineering) and Surya Koneru will be the company's senior architect. Krishna 'Kittu' Kolluri, who is the president and CEO of Neoteris, will join Netscreen as vice-president and general manager.