Top 20 Security Acquisitions of 2009
Riverbed Buys MazuPurchase Price: $25 millionWhen: JanuaryDetails: Riverbed expanded its footprint from application control into application optimization by picking up Mazu’s application mapping and analysis capabilities.
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Riverbed Buys MazuAnalyst Comment: (A)s Mazu is a genuine innovator in application dependency mapping and application analysis, the acquisition instantly fortifies Riverbed as a credible player in application performance optimization. -Forrester’s Glenn O’Donnell
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Netezza Buys Tizor Systems Purchase Price $3.1 millionWhen: FebruaryDetails: In what most agreed was a classic fire sale, Netezza paid rummage store prices for Tizor’s data auditing and compliance product set that had been created on the greenbacks of loads of VC dollars.
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Netezza Buys Tizor Systems Analyst Comment: While it is my personal opinion, I have never considered the Tizor technology a class leading product. It took them a very long time to adapt the network monitoring appliance into a competitive product that met market demand. -Securosis’ Adrian Lane
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Trustwave Buys Mirage Networks Purchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: FebruaryDetails: Trustwave hopes to integrate Mirage’s network access control (NAC) appliance capabilities into its robust MSSP offerings, a trick that analysts say this mature firm has the mettle to carry off.
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Trustwave Buys Mirage Networks Analyst Comments: Trustwave’s addition of a NAC solution gives this technology greater validity and strengthens the expectations for solid overall market growth. This acquisition stands out against others such as the Lockdown and Caymas fire sales because of the fact that Mirage Networks has been a healthy company in this space. -Frost&Sullivan Bulletin
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LogLogic Buys Exaprotect Purchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: AprilDetails: In a deal as commonsense as pairing PB with J, LogLogic bought Exaprotect for its security event management engine. LogLogic layered this technology on top of its log management solutions to create a more complete offering.
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LogLogic Buys Exaprotect Analyst Comments: With its acquisition of Exaprotect, LogLogic is the first vendor to directly tie firewall auditing capability into its SIM technology. LogLogic has fully integrated LogLogic Change Manager (formerly Exaprotect’s Solsoft ChangeManager) with LogLogic Open Log Management Platform to provide an overall network and security device management tool. -Forrester’s John Kindervag, Robert Whiteley and Margaret Ryan
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Symantec Buys Mi5 Networks Purchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: AprilDetails: Within just four months of acquiring Mi5 Networks, Symantec integrated its web gateway product into its Symantec Protection Suite Enterprise Edition in order to stay in the web security race with the likes of Blue Coat and Websense.
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Symantec Buys Mi5 Networks Analyst Comment: Not only could (should!) Symantec jump into the Web content security space by acquiring a vendor like Finjan or Mi5 Networks, but other big vendors with cash on hand will see attractive acquisition opportunities arise in the current economic climate. -Forrester’s Jonathan Penn predicted such a deal back in October 2008
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Trend Micro Buys Third Brigade Purchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: AprilDetails: After a two-year courtship partnership, TrendMicro decided to make the leap and buy ThirdBrigade and its host-based intrusion-prevention/firewall software to bolster its Trend OfficeScan solutions.
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Trend Micro Buys Third Brigade Analyst Comment: (I)t immediately positions Trend Micro as a leader in securing applications running on virtual machines in enterprise data centers as well as cloud-based servers. At the same time, it also extends Trend’s position as a server protection provider and gives Trend the foundation for a better PCI compliance story.-Current Analysis’ Paula Musich
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McAfee Buys Solidcore Purchase Price: $33 millionWhen: MayDetails: In a move to balance out the much-maligned signature-based capabilities of antivirus and other antimalware technology, McAfee picked up Solidcore for its whitelisting technology.
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McAfee Buys Solidcore Analyst Comments: McAfee intends to leverage Solidcore’s lockdown and change control functionality, which allows only authorized code to run. Solidcore technology essentially "hardens" the entire system in a known good state, preventing any unauthorized changes or the execution of unauthorized code. It further allows users to dynamically update the white list through a trusted model rule set. This approach offers security and operational benefits, which will make it a good fit with McAfee’s intention to improve its operational capabilities and make endpoints more secure. -Gartner’s Neil MacDonald, Ronni J. Colville and Peter Firstbrook
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EMC Buys ConfigureSoftPurchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: MayDetails: EMC bought ConfigureSoft outright this year in order to better bake in server configuration technology EMC already leveraged through partnership into its IT management and virtualization ecosystems.
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EMC Buys ConfigureSoftAnalyst Comments: This acquisition does not come as much of a surprise. The two vendors inked an OEM agreement in 2008 that resulted in EMC’s Server Configuration Manager and Configuration Analytics Manager, a re-branding of Configuresoft’s technologies. By following through with full acquisition, the bond becomes stronger and any vendor risk is much lower. -Gartner’s Glenn O’Donnell
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Secure Works Buys VeriSign’s MSSP PracticePurchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: JulyDetails: SecureWorks put its MSSP chess pieces in play with a couple of key acquisitions, the main one being its pickup of VeriSign’s Guardent division. This buy bolsters SecureWorks already strong services offerings.
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Secure Works Buys VeriSign’s MSSP PracticeAnalysts Comments: Both SecureWorks and VeriSign have strong reputations for security expertise and quality MSS delivery. Both providers have experience from prior acquisitions, and both have "pure play" MSS cultures, which should limit the inevitable "brain drain" that occurs after mergers and acquisitions. -Gartner’s Kelly M. Kavanagh, John Pescatore and Carsten Casper
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Barracuda Buys PurewirePurchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: OctoberDetails: Barracuda hopes to hedge its bets on appliance-based security through the acquisition of cloud-centric Purewire. The plan is to create a hybrid appliance/SaaS solution offering, though analysts wonder how well Barracuda will execute.
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Barracuda Buys PurewireAnalyst Comments: Even with their cloud backup services, Barracuda is still largely a vendor for on-premise security products. Switching from selling appliances to selling services is a non-trivial change. Distribution partners who are used to pushing boxes have to be re-trained to sell services. Incentive models have to be changed to entice them to sell services, or new distribution partners have to be acquired. Barracuda will do well to bring in more experienced personnel in service marketing and sales. -Forrester’s Chenxi Wang
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IBM Buys GuardiumPurchase Price $225 millionWhen: DecemberDetails: IBM’s betting big on the database activity monitoring (DAM) market by snapping up DAM market-leader Guardium. One of the only database security vendors with mainframe capabilties, Guardium will mesh well if IBM can integrate gracefully.
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IBM Buys GuardiumAnalyst Comment: Guardium is one of the only firms still standing with a mainframe monitoring solution, which is a major prerequisite for much of IBM’s customer base. From the IBM perspective, the functionality makes sense and fits well into some of their existing security products. From an architectural standpoint, integration (as opposed to just sharing data and events) will be a challenge. -Securosis’ Adrian Lane
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IBM Buys Ounce LabsPurchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: JulyDetails: IBM reaffirmed its commitment to application development security by following up its 2007 acquisition of WatchFire with this year’s purchase of Ounce Labs.
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IBM Buys Ounce LabsAnalyst Comment: Our research over the past several years predicted both the consolidation of static and dynamic tools as well as market acquisition by application development platform vendors. This increases pressure on HP to beef up its static analysis capabilities beyond its recent relationship with Fortify (the other leader for static analysis in our research). -Gartner’s Neil MacDonald
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Cisco Buys ScanSafePurchase Price: $183 millionWhen OctoberDetails: Cisco plans to heat up the web security market by integrating ScanSafe’s cloud-based technology into its solution set in order to offer customers greater choice.
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Cisco Buys ScanSafeAnalyst Comment: Cisco already has its own email filtering services in the cloud. Getting into Web security services is the natural next step. This is another signal that Cisco is stepping away from the on-premise-only security vendor image and casting itself as a “we have all the form factors you can possibly want” vendor. -Forrester’s Chenxi Wang
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McAfee Buys MX LogicPurchase Price: $143 millionWhen: JulyDetails: McAfee’s buy of MX Logic helped the company solidify its security SaaS model and laid the groundwork for new opportunities for the channel to offer a wider base of products with that all-important recurring revenue model
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McAfee Buys MX LogicAnalyst Comment: The MX Logic acquisition will give McAfee a much-needed anchor in the security-as-a-service landscape. E-mail security as a service, which was 30% of the $1.4 billion e-mail security boundary market in 2008, represents the lion’s share of revenues generated from security as a service today. -Gartner’s Arabella Hallawell
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ActivIdentity Buys CoreStreetPurchase Price: $20 millionWhen: DecemberDetails: CoreStreet’s public key infrastructure (PKI) , identity credential validation and physical access control technologies will all augment ActivIdentity’s already well-recognized smart card and physical access control empire.
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ActivIdentity Buys CoreStreetAnalyst Comment: Overall, the acquisition is a good move for ActivIdentity; it will enable ActivIdentity to market a broader smart card solution to the Federal Government. For customers of both companies, the acquisition provides a single vendor relationship. -Burton Group’s Mark Diodati
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Rapid7 Buys MetasploitPurchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: OctoberDetails: Rapid7 builds a huge plank in its vulnerability management platform with this acquisition of the much ballyhooed open-source penetration toolkit that is Metasploit.
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Rapid7 Buys MetasploitAnalyst Comments: Wow. All I can say is ‘Wow’.Metasploit is considerably better known than Rapid7. Metasploit is a fixture in the security research world and there are far more people using Metasploit than Rapid7 has customers. If nothing else, this gets Rapid7 products in the hands of the people who are shaping web application security, and defining how penetration testing and vulnerability management will be conducted. In a quickly evolving market like pen testing, access to that community is invaluable for a commercial vendor. Plus they get H D Moore on staff, which is a huge benefit. -Securosis’ Adrian Lane
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Trustwave Buys VericeptPurchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: SeptemberDetails: Signaling the tail end of the great DLP consolidation movement, Trustwave purchased Vericept in order to mesh better data leak technology into its PCI service portfolio.
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Trustwave Buys VericeptAnalysts Comment: Content-aware DLP functions complement many of Trustwave’s current service offerings and are useful to organizations facing PCI compliance requirements, as DLP functions help provide stronger segregation of card data handling systems. This deal also continues Trustwave’s strategy of acquiring complementary technologies to enhance its PCI-oriented managed services. -Gartner’s Paul E. Proctor, John Pescatore, and Eric Ouellet
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M86 Buys FinjanPurchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: NovemberDetails: This deal book-ends an M&A binge that started last year with the merger of Marshal and 8e6 Technology and continued in April with a pick-up of Avinti. Though integration issues may cloud the deal, analysts say it could provide M86 a services play.
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M86 Buys Finjan Analysts Comment: M86 may find Finjan’s solutions difficult to sell into Marshal’s installed base of SMB customers because Finjan’s solution mainly appeals to sophisticated enterprises. Conversely, M86 is likely to find it challenging to sell its SMB-focused, software-based e-mail security solution to Finjan’s large-enterprise customers. -Gartner’s Lawrence Orans and Peter Firstbrook
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AT&T Buys VeriSign’s Security Consulting PracticePurchase Price: UndisclosedWhen: OctoberDetails:AT&T follows in the footsteps of other telcos such as Verizon and BT to pick up its own security consulting firm in order to offer comprehensive security services to existing customers.
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AT&T Buys VeriSign’s Security Consulting PracticeAnalyst Comment: While I believe that this is overall a good acquisition on paper, it remains to be seen how well AT&T executes on its vision to bring together competencies from both companies to offer world class security services. -Forrester’s Khalid Kark