NEWS: Symantec to buy PGP and GuardianEdge
Symantec has announced that it has signed definitive agreements to buy both PGP Corp (approx $300m) and GuardianEdge Technologies (approx $70m). Subject to all the necessaries, of course, but expected to complete sometime in Q3 this year. These two acquisitions will ensure that we automatically think ‘crypto’ and not just ‘anti-malware’ when we think Symantec.
Given the ever-increasing security threat and the ever-growing awareness of that threat, under-pinned by spiralling legal compliance requirements – seems like a good idea to me. Remember that, effectively, under data protection laws, lost encrypted data is not considered lost.
What I really like about these acquisitions is that they go well beyond PC full-disk encryption alone. With PGP and GuardianEdge, Symantec gets a geographically-dispersed install base, a leading standards-based key management platform, a PKI SaaS offering, a strong government presence, and encryption coverage from mobile devices to mainframes. Yesterday, Symantec was lagging in encryption and key management and today, with PGP and GuardianEdge, it is now able to provide leading solutions worldwide.
Jon Oltsik, Principal Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group
