MessageLabs may be next takeover target

Managed services provider thought ripe for acquisition.

Managed security specialist

MessageLabs

has been labelled a likely candidate for takeover by one of the industry giants, in a report by market and merger experts at the

Financial Times

.

In the wake of the acquisition of rival firm

Postini

by web behemoth

Google

,

MessageLabs

has been revealed to have been put forward for the same deal, and is thought to remain an attractive option for takeover by one of the other major players in the security world.

McAfee

,

Trend Micro

,

IBM

and

HP

have been mentioned as possible buyers, with

McAfee

thought by some the most likely candidate.

With profits set to rise considerably, market analysts have predicted that

MessageLabs

may IPO soon if it is not bought out. More analysis from the

FT

is

here

.

Posted on 18 July 2007 by

Virus Bulletin