by Simon Quicke
8 October 2008
Symantec continues to open its corporate wallet with the
announcement of the acquisition of SaaS specialist MessageLabs.
The
security and storage specialist is paying $695m in cash for MessageLabs, which
will be split into £310 million Pounds Sterling
and $154 million US Dollars.
The deal is
expected to close at the end of this year and Symantec will incorporate the
online messaging security offering from MessageLabs into its portfolio gaining
experience of providing hosted security services.
As a result
Symantec will set up a software as a services product group to develop SaaS
services.
In a
statement, Adrian Chamberlain, chief executive officer, MessageLabs, said that
the cloud approach was shared by both companies.
“Symantec
and MessageLabs have a common belief in the
benefits of in-the-cloud services and how they enable customers to be protected
from threats and enforce policy,” he said.
John W. Thompson,
chairman and chief executive officer, Symantec, echoed Chamberlain and also
underlined its commitment to building more online services.
