Network Security & Hardware - eWeek

Network Security & Hardware: Nine Security Acquisitions We Would Love to See


Given the economy, maybe it is not surprising that there are security acquisitions going on, as it perhaps gives larger vendors an opportunity to buy smaller ones at somewhat cheaper price than in the best of times.

The past few months have seen several acquisitions in the security space: IBM's purchase of Ounce Labs, Trend Micro's soon-to-be-closed acquisition of Third Brigade and McAfee's plans for MX Logic, just to name a few.

With this in mind, eWEEK has compiled a list of security acquisitions we would like to see. This list was written without regard to any acquisition rumors that may be floating around about any of these companies, but with an eye toward the product portfolios of various vendors and their competitors.
 
  • Sophos thus far has not made any real move into SAAS (software as a service), bucking a trend of moves by McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro. The strategy has paid off for Sophos, as the company's on-premises business is going well. Still, as SAAS adoption continues to increase, the lack of a SAAS business could come back to haunt the company.
  • As analyst Eric Ogren of The Ogren Group put it: "Google hosts so many Websites and blogs, storefronts, and download centers that a leading security scanning service makes too much sense. It would be a huge public service for Google to ensure that hosted sites are regularly scanned for security issues."
  • When IBM announced its acquisition of Ounce Labs recently, the move put pressure on Hewlett-Packard and other vendors to build out their static code analysis capabilities. Coverity's products could fit into HP's portfolio.
  • This would be a good way for McAfee to match Trend Micro's move to acquire Third Brigade. Catbird specializes in virtualization security, including policy enforcement, intrusion detection, and the monitoring and tracking of virtual machines.
  • Qualys focuses on on-demand vulnerability management. By acquiring a company such as Zscaler, the vendor would be adding Web filtering and security as a service to its portfolio.
  • This would get Symantec's feet more firmly planted in the vulnerability management business. Symantec already dabbles in this area through a service called the Threat and Vulnerability Management Program.
  • The companies have worked together in the past around HP ProCurve for network security. HP is arguably behind Cisco and Juniper Networks in this regard, and buying McAfee would offer it a way to bring its security expertise to bear.
  • Either Check Point or Cisco would do well to acquire AlgoSec, which provides firewall, router and VPN policy management.
  • Oracle and Passlogix have had an OEM agreement for several years now, with Oracle rebranding and selling Passlogix's single-sign-on product. Passlogix had a similar agreement with IBM, which last year acquired Passlogix rival Encentuate. Acquiring Passlogix could be a good response for Oracle.
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