Acquisition deal valued at $695m.
Security industry heavyweight
Symantec
has announced a definitive agreement to acquire software-as-a-service security specialist
MessageLabs
.
According to the terms of the agreement,
Symantec
will pay a purchase price of approximately $695 million in cash (which will be split into roughly £310 million sterling and $154 million USD).
MessageLabs
grew by more than 20 per cent over the last fiscal year to see annual sales of $145 million with more than eight million end-users.
Symantec
representatives say that the aim of the acquisition is to strengthen the security vendor’s software-as-a-service offerings, which is an area tipped by security industry watchers for significant and rapid growth.
This latest acquisition comes four months after
Symantec
announced its plans to purchase online backup service
SwapDrive
and just a couple of months after announcing its purchase of
security and privacy vendor
PC Tools
.
The agreement is expected to be completed by the end of this calendar year.
Posted on 08 October 2008 by
Virus Bulletin
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