Symantec Continues Acquisition Spree

Symantec Corp. continued what has become a yearlong acquisition binge on Monday when it announced that it has agreed to buy On Technology Corp. for $100 million. On Technology sells infrastructure management systems that help enterprises deploy and manage software.

On Technology becomes the sixth company that Symantec has acquired since July 2002. That summer alone, Symantec spent $375 million to buy four promising security companies, Riptech Inc., Recourse Technologies Inc., SecurityFocus and Mountain Wave Inc. Then, in September of this year, Symantec acquired PowerQuest Corp., a storage management and disaster recovery company.

Now, with the addition of On Technology, Symantec is taking another step outside the security market as it tries to move into the enterprise management arena. On Technology, based in Waltham, Mass., has partnerships with a number of high-profile vendors, including Microsoft Corp. and Computer Associates International Inc., one of Symantecs biggest competitors.

Symantec, based in Cupertino, Calif., has been quite aggressive in seeking acquisitions in recent months, even going so far as to include a link on its Web site encouraging prospective sellers to submit their proposal. The company, however, has not been alone in its pursuit of new blood. Network Associates Inc. also has made a number of acquisitions lately, with an eye toward expanding its reach beyond its historical strength in the anti-virus market.

Symantec officials expect the On Technology purchase to close by March 2004.