Manchester IT security and assurance business NCC Group has boosted its services with the acquisition of Axzona, a Scottish website monitoring company.

NCC said the deal was worth up to £1.7m in cash. It will pan an initial consideration of £1.2m for Axzona's technology, with two further payments of up to £500,000 in total if the company hits performance targets over the next two years.

NCC expects to benefit from the complementary monitoring technology developed by Axzona, which will be incorporated into site confidence's range of website performance services.

Last month, the company posted sales of £71m for the 12 months to 31 May 2011, up from £47.6m a year ago. Pre-tax profits remained steady at £12.8m, while adjusted operating profit grew by 23 per cent to £17.9m.

Chief executive Rob Cotton said the company had "flourished" through a combination of "strong reliable organic growth, carefully acquired and integrated acquisitions".

Stuart Moss of Rickitt Mitchell advised NCC Group on the acquisition of Axzona.