Symantec Finally Grabs Up Vontu

After weeks of rumors, Symantec finally announced that it plans to acquire Vontu for $350 million.

Symantec's move to buy up the San Francisco-based data loss prevention specialist comes after a busy month in the DLP space. Security rivals McAfee and Trend Micro both made moves of their own, with McAfee announcing plans to buy the data encryption provider SafeBoot and Trend Micro also declaring its intent to acquire Provilla.

Resource Library:

Earlier this year, Websense, of San Diego, bought Port Authority for $90 million, and Cisco Systems jumped into the space when it acquired e-mail filter and anti-spam provider IronPort.

Symantec officials said Vontu's products will complement the company's existing portfolio of endpoint and network security products as well as its storage and compliance tools to provide customers with a comprehensive DLP platform. The two companies already have an OEM agreement, with Symantec including Vontu technology in its Symantec Mail Security 8300 appliance.

"The combination of Symantec's existing portfolio and Vontu's leading products and dedicated team enables us to deliver a central component of our Security 2.0 vision to customers—information-centric security that protects both the device and the information itself," said Tom Kendra, group president of Symantec's Security and Data Management Group, in a statement.

"In a business environment that is increasingly competitive, transparent and regulated, companies need confidence that their most valuable asset—information—is safe."

The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth calendar quarter of 2007.

Check out eWEEK.com's Security Center for the latest security news, reviews and analysis. And for insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEK's Security Watch blog.