Re: Symantec Buys @stake

[Matt Hargett <matt () use net>]

Chris Eagle wrote:
> > http://www.atstake.com/events_news/press_releases/template.htm
> > l?usa/091604
> >
> > So Symantec bought @stake. NAI bought Foundstone, INS bought Global 
> > Integrity. Microsoft bought LSD.  The era of consolodation is upon us.
> >
> > Anyone have any comments on the sale?

I wish them the best of luck with the integration of the two companies. 
Services alone don't scale, and making traction as one transitions 
product company can be difficult, so this makes sense to me.

Here's what I'm not sure of:
Computer security (to me) has two aspects: network and application. 
Symantec sells firewalls, IDSes, etc which covers the network aspect. 
@stake largely has application security "tools", which I generally label 
as QA/dev tools. Does a company with network-oriented security make 
sense to try and integrate application security products while not 
having any other developer/QA offerings? Are they going to resurrect 
their Java IDE to get back at MS now that virus scanning is being 
bundled with Longhorn? I'm not trying to be trite -- these are honest 
questions. If someone from @stake or Symantec can explain, I'd be 
interested to hear.

Did anyone care that WatchFire bought Sanctum for an incredibly low 
price? Anyone have thoughts on that?


> Let's not forget BugScan getting bought by LogicLibrary.  Comments Matt?

Nothing really to comment on. They liked our roadmap and customers and 
needed a security offering to complement their asset management tool 
(Logidex). Almost nothing has changed -- same contractors, same work, 
same office (for now), etc. BugScan is still, and will always be, 
available as a standalone product while offering interfaces for 
integration with Logidex and other things.

Main difference is that I now have a real salary, and missing sales 
quotas won't mean that I have to skip a paycheck. Another nifty thing is 
full time sales people. We were doing well with one part time sales 
person, and I expect things will greatly improve with several dedicated 
ones.

BTW, selling a company is harder than it sounds. This was months and 
months in the doing. We're celebrating tonight at TangoTango in San 
Francisco (on California around Polk) if anyone wants to show up :)
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