Friday, October 10, 2008

Symantec acquired MessageLabs for £401.2m

Antivirus software expert Symantec has gone on a buying spree.

Symantec is to extend its online messaging security services offering with the acquisition of MessageLabs for around £410m.

MessageLabs has more than eight million end-users in more than 19,000 organisation, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

MessageLabs email filtering services cover much the same technological function as Brightmail spam filtering appliances, another Symantec acquisition. "I'm not concerned at all that we can have Brightmail on premise and MessageLabs, and that the two will work with each other," Thomspson said.

CEO of MessageLabs Adrian Chamberlain said"Joining with Symantec we can leapfrog into new markets we might not have been able to access for years. In addition there's the potential for us to develop Symantec protection products as an online service, expanding the portfolio, as well as creating a potential to cross-sell existing products."

Subject to regulatory approval, the firms hope the deal will be completed by the end of the year.

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