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Symantec buys compliance firm BindView

Agent-less tech ticks all the boxes

Symantec continued its seemingly relentless acquisition spree on Monday with the purchase of security compliance firm BindView for $209m. The all-cash transaction, which is subject to regulatory and BindView shareholder approvals, is expected to close in the first calendar quarter of 2006.

Post-acquisition, BindView's technology will be used to deliver policy compliance and vulnerability management products and services without the need to install software agents. BindView's agent-less technology is positioned as suitable for smaller firms and those with multiple branch offices to consider whereas Symantec’s existing agent-based technology architecture is a better fit for enterprises with a large central headquarters.

Enterprises are faced with meeting an increasing list of regulatory mandates, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and Basel II. BindView’s IT security compliance software aims to help simplify the management overhead associated with demonstrating regulatory compliance by automating three critical functions: policy and compliance management, vulnerability and configuration management, and directory and access management. Its technology also helps firms manage security policies.

The BindView deal comes weeks after Symantec completed its $13.5bn mega-merger with storage giant Veritas and follows a string of smaller purchases by it over recent months. These acquisitions include TurnTide, anti-spam specialist Brightmail, SafeWeb and others. In August Symantec made its first post-merger acquisition when it snapped up compliance specialist Sygate Technologies, rapidly following that up with the acquisition of behaviour-based security and anti-phishing developer WholeSecurity last month. ®

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