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Top 10 Security Acquisitions of 2011

By Ericka Chickowski on 2012-01-04



While IT security merger and acquisitions activity has slowed down since 2010, this year nevertheless saw some noteworthy deals close. Not only did we see some major plays for managed security services dominance, but also purchases that will have significance on the realms of security monitoring and cloud security in the year to come. From Dell to McAfee to Symantec to IBM, plenty of deals were done in 2011 as vendors sought to strengthen their hands in the always growing security market. Here’s a look at some of the top IT security M&A deals of 2011.

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Dell SecureWorks


Close Date: February
Price: $612 million
Closed right at the start of the year, this deal gives Dell a mature portfolio of managed service capabilities and a better way to engage with SMB and mid-market customers thirsting for turnkey security offerings.

Thoma Bravo Buys Tripwire


Close Date: May
Price: Undisclosed,
A private equity firm with some serious security chops-- already owning firms like Entrust, LANDesk NetIQ and SonicWall--Thoma Bravo continued its security spending spree in 2011 with a purchase of Tripwire, security and compliance automation solution with particular strengths in cloud security.

Thoma Bravo Buys Blue Coat


Close Date: Pending, Announced in December
Price: $1.3 billion
Before the year was out, Thoma Bravo logged an even bigger buy when it picked up Blue Coat for a monster price tag. The deal was a win-win, giving ailing Blue Coat some stability after disappointing earnings and the ouster of a CEO after less than a year of service and adding content security to Thoma Bravo's portfolio.

Symantec Buys Clearwell Systems


Close Date: July
Price: $390 million
As organizations grapple with how to mesh complicated eDiscovery procedures with archiving and back-up, many will look to Symantec for the technological backbone to make it happen. The Clearwell acquisition gives the storage and security giant a key component to strengthen its eDiscovery chops.

IBM Buys Q1 labs


Close Date: October
Price: Undisclosed
IBM was hoping to better tie together its security offerings with the streamlined sophistication of an in-house security information and event management (SIEM) platform. That's where Q1 came into play, a company whose acquisition will give Big Blue customers an integrated source for analytics to spot those advanced persistent threats more quickly.

McAfee Buys Nitro Security


Close Date: December
Price: Undisclosed
Interestingly announced on the very same day as the IBM purchase of Q1, McAfee's purchase of Nitro Security offers it similar capabilities. The SIEM vendor gives McAfee risk management and cross-infrastructure monitoring capabilities and will help it unify its portfolio through a more cohesive management console.

McAfee Buys Sentrigo


Close Date: April
Price: Undisclosed
Given the Nitro deal a few months later, McAfee's purchase of Sentrigo makes even more sense than it already did. Sentrigo's database activity monitoring capabilities will provide a more robust information protection component to the McAfee portfolio and the data gathered from it can be streamed through Q1 for more effective event correlation.

Sophos Buys Astaro


Close Date: July 6
Price: Undisclosed
Noted primarily for its endpoint protection suite, Sophos looked to round out its security capabilities with a pick-up of Unified Threat Management (UTM) vendor Astaro. The buy gives Sophos a greater footprint in the network security realm and will help customers cover more security layers without having to go to a different vendor.

Wave Systems Buys Safend


Close Date: Sept. 23
Price: $12.8 million
Encryption and authentication vendor Wave Systems expanded its horizons with a purchase of Safend, which develops port and device control systems, removable media encryption and content security. The deal gives Wave greater presence with data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities and also allows it to extend into healthcare and government markets.

GFI Buys Monitis


Close Date: October
Price: Undisclosed
GFI Software was looking to bolster its offerings for the managed services segment it caters to buy picking up Monitis, a SMB-focused cloud monitoring solution that will give MSPs moving to the cloud a way to keep better tabs on the cloud environment.

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