Symantec to buy three security firms

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/0717syman2.html

[Several ISN readers sent word of the $355 million Symantec buying
spree, and you start to wonder how much more $$$ Symantec has sitting
in the petty cash box for future acquisitions and whose next? Other
questions come to mind, since Symantec has a track record of
overhyping virus warnings, who isn't to say that the same won't become
the norm with security holes? also troubling me is that Symantec being
the large one-stop security group it is now, might hold onto security
vulerabilties of Symantec products. Lastly, if some of these fears
become reality, you have to wonder if there's going to be a new
independent mailing list for security vulnerabilities. ;)  - WK]

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By Ellen Messmer
Network World Fusion, 07/17/02

Symantec said it has entered into deals to acquire three security
firms - Recourse Technologies, Riptech and SecurityFocus - for a total
of $355 million in cash. Symantec also announced record quarterly
revenues of $316 million, up 39% from the same quarter last year.

In a conference call with analysts, Symantec CEO John Thompson
expressed strong satisfaction with the revenue performance of
Symantec's consumer and enterprise security divisions overall,
especially in sales of antivirus products and Symantec's firewall/VPNs
across global markets that include the U.S., Europe, Canada, Japan and
Latin America.

The "one disappointment," said Thompson, has been in Symantec's
network-based intrusion-detection system (IDS) product, NetProwler.  
Symantec intends to purchase Recourse Technologies primarily to gain
its network-based ManHunt product. Recourse also makes the ManTrap
"honeypot" product to monitor suspected attackers.

"ManHunt is not just stronger than what we had, but [also] what our
competitors had" in network-based IDS, Thompson said. The $135 million
Recourse acquisition, subject to regulatory approval, affects
Symantec's stated plans to offer an IDS appliance based on NetProwler.  
However, Thompson said Symantec will continue to offer its host-based
IDS called Intruder Alert.

Recourse's gigabit-speed ManHunt IDS sensors, which incorporate an
anomaly-detection technology not dependent on signature updates, are
used by 150 customers, including the U.S. Department of Energy and
Ingram-Micro, said Thompson.

Symantec decided to spend $145 million to purchase Riptech, which
provides managed security through its security operations center in
suburban Virginia, due to its so-called Calterian monitoring
technology and its customer base of 500 customers in 40 countries.

Symantec, which operates its own managed security services center in
San Antonio with plans to expand centers in England and Germany, will
have to find a way to gracefully mesh the technologies and
administration of both the Symantec and Riptech operations centers,
Thompson said.

SecurityFocus, which Symantec intends to buy for $75 million, provides
in-depth security alerts and consulting. SecurityFocus collects
information from 14,000 IDS devices around the world.

The main challenge ahead for Symantec, pending the customary
government approval of the three acquisitions, will be in successfully
integrating the new technologies into Symantec's product line and
services, Thompson acknowledged.

In the analyst teleconference, Thompson did not mention personnel
layoffs associated with any of the acquisitions, but he added Symantec
would be "wringing out redundancies" brought about by buying the three
companies.

The acquisitions of Riptech, Recourse and SecurityFocus all come on
the heels of another important purchase just weeks ago by Symantec of
a company called Mountain Wave. Symantec bought Mountain Wave for its
CyberWolf technology. This technology enables what's called "security
information management" by collecting the output of multiple security
devices to provide a comprehensive view of security status across an
enterprise.

All together, Symantec is buying its way into the core technologies
that will be integrated into future products that Symantec will have
more to say about in the future, Thompson said.



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