Acquisitions

Symantec continues to be active with acquisitions and alliances, and we are always interested in hearing about opportunities that are a strategic fit and that fuel growth by addressing customer needs.

In November 2008, Symantec completed its acquisition of MessageLabs, the leader in online messaging security. With MessageLabs, Symantec provides customers greater choice with the broadest range of offerings in the messaging security market including software, appliance and hosted services. MessageLabs’ established suite of online services for messaging and web security provide additional, complementary offerings to those already available on the Symantec Protection Network platform. By combining MessageLabs and Symantec Protection Network, customers benefit from access to a greater number of Software-as-a-Service offerings on one easy-to-use portal and the opportunity to purchase through a broader network of partners in more locations around the world.

In June 2008, Symantec completed its acquisition of SwapDrive, a privately-held online storage company, to strengthen the services offerings in the Norton consumer portfolio and to help consumers manage data across their devices. With the explosion of digital information – photos, music, videos – consumers have more files on their computers than ever before. Adding SwapDrive’s technology to the Norton portfolio will give consumers access to a world-class tool to help secure and manage their information.

In April 2008, Symantec completed its acquisition of AppStream, a privately-held company that provides leading, patented application streaming technology. The combination of AppStream’s streaming technology with Symantec’s endpoint and application virtualization solutions will give customers another way to effectively manage their endpoints by offering on-demand service of data and applications to endpoints, helping them save money in IT administration and licensing costs.

In December 2007, Symantec completed its acquisition of Vontu, the industry-leader in data loss prevention (DPL) solutions. Vontu's Data Loss Prevention solutions – which help organizations prevent the loss of confidential or proprietary information wherever it is stored or being used – complement and integrate into Symantec's existing endpoint and network security, storage, and compliance solutions to provide customers with the most comprehensive platform for data loss prevention on the market today.

In April 2007, Symantec completed its acquisition of Altiris, a leading provider of service-oriented management software that enables IT organizations to easily manage, secure and service heterogeneous IT assets. The acquisition will allow Symantec to help customers better manage and enforce IT policies at the endpoint, identify and protect against threats, and repair and service assets.

In December 2006, Symantec completed its acquisition of Company-i, a UK-based professional services firm that specializes in addressing data center optimization and storage management needs for large enterprises. This acquisition furthers Symantec Global Services’ capability to help clients manage IT risk and cost, particularly in the data center, by reducing infrastructure complexity, improving service management, and increasing automation.

In February 2006, Symantec completed its acquisition of Relicore, a leading provider of data center change and configuration management solutions. The addition of Relicore's Clarity technology to Symantec's existing storage and server management solutions allow customers to gain greater visibility and control over their data center assets and improve their efficiency and effectiveness in managing those assets.

In February 2006, Symantec completed its acquisition of IMlogic, the market leader in enterprise software for instant messaging. By adding IMlogic's IM Manager to its product portfolio, Symantec became the only vendor to offer customers a solution to manage all of their business-critical messaging end to end. Also, integration of the IMlogic Threat Center augments the current capabilities of Symantec Security Response and enriches the data provided through Symantec's semi-annual Internet Security Threat Report.

In January 2006, Symantec completed its acquisition of BindView Development Corporation, a global provider of agent-less IT security compliance software. With the BindView agent-less architecture and Symantec's existing agent-based technology, companies now have a choice of industry-leading agent-based or agent-less solutions that will enable them to define, control, and sustain their IT compliance requirements.

In October 2005, Symantec completed the acquisition of Sygate Technologies, the market leader in network access control solutions for large enterprises. Through intelligent policy enforcement, Sygate solutions protect computers, data, and networks from misuse, malicious access, and misconfiguration. Sygate's expertise in endpoint compliance complements Symantec's leadership in client security to offer organizations a comprehensive endpoint protection solution for both managed and unmanaged devices.

In October 2005, Symantec completed the acquisition of WholeSecurity, Inc., a leading provider of behavior-based security and anti-phishing technology. Recently named by Fortune Magazine as a 2005 Breakout Company, WholeSecurity delivers its Confidence Online family of products to guard against phishing scams and to protect unmanaged and remote PCs, corporate managed PCs, and consumer e-commerce sessions. The combination of WholeSecurity's behavior-based technology with Symantec's industry leading information security, availability, and integrity solutions is expected to enable Symantec to bring real-time protection to consumer and enterprise desktops.

In July 2005, Symantec completed its merger with VERITAS Software bringing together worldwide leaders in storage software and security software. The new Symantec will provide enterprise customers with a more effective way to secure and manage their most valuable asset, their information. Symantec can now deliver information security and availability solutions across all platforms and to customers of all sizes. Learn More

In December 2004, Symantec completed the acquisition of Platform Logic. This acquisition brings to Symantec patent-pending AppFire technology that applies trusted operating system techniques to confine applications to minimal privileges and resources, stopping day zero attacks without the need for signatures or definitions. This solution of host-based intrusion prevention is a strong technical complement to our existing solutions and roadmap. Additionally, this technology offers the broadest platform support with a product architecture that is consistent with Symantec’s. Platform Logic brings more than 15 years of industry experience in securing operating systems and applications and has focused exclusively on securing the host platform for Windows, UNIX and Linux environments.

In October 2004, Symantec completed the acquisition of @stake, a leading digital security company that helps corporations secure their complex infrastructures and applications. @stake's consultants are recognized as experts with security technologies and leaders in counteracting evolving threat landscapes. @stake has a range of powerful tools that enable detailed network analysis in testing, identifying, and fixing any security vulnerabilities quickly. This merger expands Symantec's global consulting capabilities, allowing Symantec to become a trusted partner in helping customers build and maintain a stronger and more secure computing environment.

In October 2004, Symantec completed the acquisition of LIRIC Associates, a UK-based consultancy that offers expertise in assessing the security needs of highly complex global networks and designing the architecture and policies to secure these networks. LIRIC's services range from vulnerability and risk assessment to secure system design to operational security policies. With this acquisition, Symantec is expanding the capacity of its global professional services group to help customers to bridge the gap between security threats and the security technologies that address those threats.

In July 2004, Symantec completed the acquisition of TurnTide. This acquisition brings to Symantec the industry's first anti-spam router, which uses innovative traffic-shaping techniques to reduce the volume of malicious threats entering the network, including spam, viruses and other threats. This technology complements the anti-spam filtering solutions Symantec acquired from Brightmail. Symantec initially intends to offer the existing TurnTide product as a standalone solution on Symantec hardware. In addition, Symantec plans to integrate the technology with its existing line of security solutions at the gateway.

In June 2004, Symantec completed the acquisition of Brightmail. This acquisition will position Symantec to provide customers with the most comprehensive messaging security solution in the industry. Symantec will integrate Brightmail's industry-leading anti-spam solutions into Symantec's gateway offerings to create a new class of protection, as well as leverage the huge volume of email traffic passing through the Brightmail process as a new source of early warning on impending threats. Brightmail's market-leading anti-spam technology will be a key complement to Symantec's broad array of gateway security solutions.

In February 2004, Symantec completed the acquisition of ON Technology Corporation. ON Technology's leading software distribution capabilities, as well as inventory and patch management solutions, are critical components to the end-to-end management system Symantec is establishing to help our customers build, manage, and protect their IT infrastructures.

In December 2003, Symantec completed the acquisition of PowerQuest Corporation -- another key component of Symantec's strategy to deliver integrated solutions that help enterprises of all sizes manage their information technology. The acquisition of PowerQuest, combined with Symantec's enterprise administration solutions, significantly broadens the enterprise security management options for customers. This acquisition will enable Symantec to deliver solutions that allow customers, for the first time, to build, manage, and protect their IT infrastructures with true end-to-end security management capabilities.

In October 2003, Symantec completed the acquisition of SafeWeb, Inc., a leading provider of SSL VPN appliances. The acquisition brought to Symantec SafeWeb's Secure Extranet Appliance technology designed to reduce the cost and complexity of deploying, managing, and maintaining secure access to remote users. Symantec intends to offer the SafeWeb SSL-based VPN technology on the Symantec appliance platforms as a standalone offering. In addition, Symantec plans to integrate the clientless VPN capabilities into the next version of the Symantec Gateway Security Appliance series later in 2004. By integrating SafeWeb's clientless VPN technology into the Symantec Gateway Security Appliance, Symantec can offer the most comprehensive protection without the need to deploy additional hardware at the gateway or software at the desktop.

In July 2003, Symantec completed the acquisition of Nexland. The acquisition culminated from a long-standing partnership between the two companies for the joint development of the Symantec Firewall/VPN Appliance product family. This acquisition brought additional advantages to Symantec in the small security appliance market through the following: Ownership of the intellectual property (including patents), greater control of the development and support activities, and reduced manufacturing costs.

In August 2002, Symantec completed the acquisition of Recourse Technologies. The acquisition brought to Symantec true gigabit speed network intrusion detection with next generation hybrid technology and the industry's leading "honeypot" solution. This combination provided to customers Symantec's industry-leading host-based intrusion detection solution, Intruder Alert, and the leading gigabit network intrusion detection system, ManHunt, for the most comprehensive, real-time preventive protection. In addition, the acquisition brought Recourse's ManTrap into Symantec's portfolio. ManTrap provides a unique approach for identifying and containing internal and external threats by providing an early warning system that can surface an attack on a false system before it hits a real system. Administrators can analyze the attacker's actions, motivations and methods in the "honeypot" or decoy system to prevent intrusions to real systems, or terminate the session immediately.

In August 2002, Symantec completed the acquisition of Riptech. The combination of Symantec and Riptech created a global network of world-class Security Operations Centers operating around the clock in Virginia, Texas, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. With the combination of the Riptech and Recourse acquisitions, Symantec became the leading provider of managed security services worldwide, monitoring and managing the largest number of security devices across the broadest array of solutions.

In August 2002, Symantec completed the acquisition of SecurityFocus. Symantec is focusing on integrating the SecurityFocus line of DeepSight Threat Management Systems and Alert Services into its existing Symantec Security Response organization, to provide customers with the most comprehensive, proactive early warning system across the broadest range of threats. Symantec will continue to license the SecurityFocus Vulnerability Database to security product vendors, managed service providers and other organizations that use it to create powerful new security products and services for their customers. In addition, Symantec will continue to manage the Bugtraq mailing list and the online security community under the SecurityFocus brand. It will continue to offer a forum for objective reporting by security experts on the latest IT threats and attacks as well as how to prevent security breaches.

In July 2002, Symantec closed the acquisition of Mountain Wave, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise security management software and services. The acquisition provided to Symantec the patent-pending CyberWolf technology designed to automate the detection of security incidents by the intelligent analysis of security events and alerts in real-time. The CyberWolf technology is becoming an integral component of Symantec's enterprise security solutions, which provide any size organization with the technology, global response and services necessary to manage its information security.