Sourcefire turns down $186 million takeover bid

Unsolicited offer from Barracuda Networks rejected.

Sourcefire

, the open source specialists behind the popular

Snort

intrusion prevention system and backer of the

ClamAV

open-source anti-malware project, has announced that it has rejected an unexpected takeover bid from anti-spam appliance specialist

Barracuda Networks

, claiming the rumoured $186 million offer ‘substantially undervalues’ the company’s worth.

Barracuda

is a user of

Sourcefire

‘s

ClamAV

technology in some of its appliance products, and recently became embroiled in a

patent row with

Trend Micro


over this implementation. The move to bring the development of the free scanning engine in-house has been seen by some as a move to gain leverage in the ongoing case.

A brief statement from

Sourcefire

is

here

, with the initial offer announcement from

Barracuda


here

.

Posted on 03 June 2008 by

Virus Bulletin