One month after it announced the acquisition of firewall maker Tiny Software Inc., Computer Associates International Inc. scooped up another small security company: anti-spam vendor Qurb Inc. of San Mateo, Calif.
CA acquired Qurb on July 20 in an all-cash transaction for an undisclosed sum. The Islandia, N.Y., company plans to use Qurbs software to extend the reach of its eTrust software on corporate desktops, according to Sam Curry, vice president of eTrust security management at CA.
CA has licensed Qurb software since 2004, selling it to consumers as eTrust Antispam. The company decided to bring Qurbs technology in-house to meet enterprise demands for layered security at both the desktop and gateway, Curry said.
Qurbs technology will continue to be sold as a consumer product under the eTrust brand. Anti-spam and anti-phishing technology from Qurb will also be sold as an option to eTrust Secure Content Management sometime in 2006. CA will also license Qurbs technology through OEM relationships, he said.
Staff from Qurb will move to CAs corporate offices in South San Francisco, Curry said.
CA has steadily acquired security technology from a host of small, specialized vendors in recent months. After buying PestPatrol Inc. for its anti-spyware technology in August 2004, the company bought Tiny Software in May.
CA will add Tiny and Qurb technology to the eTrust Integrated Threat Management software, an effort to tie together key CA security functions, including anti-virus and anti-spyware, in a common desktop client for enterprise customers, Curry said.
The first Integrated Threat Management release is due out in the fourth quarter and will have integrated anti-virus and anti-spyware features. Desktop firewall and anti-spam functions from Tiny and Qurb will be added sometime in 2006, Curry said.
CA also plans to maintain and expand anti-phishing and desktop search features that it acquired with Qurb. The company will publish SDKs (software development kits) and possibly release stand-alone products that use the technology in the future, Curry said.