Symantec - Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and Acquisitions

ACT! acquisition and sale

In 1993 Symantec acquired ACT! from Contact Software International. Symantec sold ACT! to SalesLogix in 1999. At the time it was the world's most popular CRM application for Windows and Macintosh.

Veritas acquisition

On December 16, 2004, Veritas and Symantec announced their plans for a merger. With Veritas valued at $13.5 billion, it was the largest software industry merger to date. Symantec's shareholders voted to approve the merger on June 24, 2005; the deal closed successfully on July 2, 2005. July 5, 2005 was the first day of business for U.S. offices of the new, combined software company. As a result of this merger, Symantec includes storage and availability related products in its portfolio namely Veritas File System (VxFS), Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM), Veritas Volume Replicator (VVR) and Veritas Cluster Server (VCS), NetBackup (NBU), Backup Exec (BE), Enterprise Vault (EV).

Sygate acquisition

On August 16, 2005, Symantec acquired Sygate a security software firm with about 200 staff, based in Fremont, California. As of November 30, 2005 all Sygate personal firewall products were discontinued by Symantec and now appear to be part of Symantec's Norton range called Norton Personal Firewall (discontinued and merged into Norton-brand line of software).

Altiris acquisition

On January 29, 2007, Symantec announced plans to acquire Altiris and on April 6, 2007 the acquisition was completed. Altiris specializes in service-oriented management software that allows organizations to manage IT assets. They also provide software for web services, security, and systems management products. Established in 1998, Altiris is headquartered in Lindon, Utah, United States.

Application Performance Management sellout

On January 17, 2008, Symantec announced that they were spinning off the Application Performance Management business and its i3 product range to Vector Capital. Precise Software Solutions took over development, product management, marketing and sales for the APM business, launching as an independent company on September 17, 2008.

Acquisition of PC Tools

On August 18, 2008, Symantec announced the signing of an agreement to acquire PC Tools (company) such that PC Tools would maintain separate operations. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

MessageLabs acquisition

On October 9, 2008, Symantec announced its intent to acquire Gloucester based MessageLabs (a 2007 spin-off from parent company Star Internet) to boost its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business. Symantec purchased the online messaging and Web security provider for about $695 million in cash. (Currency fluctuation) The acquisition closed on November 17, 2008.

MessageLabs’ established suite of online services for messaging and web security complements the offerings available through Symantec Protection Network, the Symantec SaaS platform for providing market-leading technologies to customers online. The newly created SaaS product group will accelerate the development of new SaaS solutions and hybrid offerings for IT professionals that secure and manage information in the cloud. Customers will benefit from access to a greater number of SaaS offerings and the opportunity to purchase through a broader network of partners in more locations around the world.

PGP and Guardian Edge Acquisition

On April 29, 2010, Symantec announced its intent to acquire PGP and Guardian Edge. The acquisitions provide access to established encryption, key management and technologies for Symantec's customers. The acquisition closed on June 4, 2010.

VeriSign Security Acquisition

On May 19, 2010, Symantec signed a definitive agreement to acquire VeriSign’s security business, which includes the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Services, the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Services, the VeriSign Trust Services and the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Authentication Service. The acquisition closed on August 9, 2010.

ClearWell Systems Acquisition

On May 19, 2011 Symantec announced the acquisition of ClearWell systems for approximatelly $390 million.

"Symantec has entered into an agreement to acquire privately held Clearwell Systems, Inc., a recognized leader in the eDiscovery market. Clearwell's eDiscovery solution complements and enhances Symantec’s Enterprise Vault eDiscovery capabilities for a more complete end-to-end eDiscovery solution. Symantec’s acquisition of Clearwell brings together the industry’s leading eDiscovery, archiving and backup offerings to provide customers one of the most comprehensive information management solutions available."

Liveoffice Acquisition

On January 17, 2012 Symantec announced the acquisition of cloud email archiving company LiveOffice. The acquisition price was $115 million.

LiveOffice, Symantec’s hosted archiving OEM partner for Enterprise Vault.cloud, will add a cloud-based messaging protection solution to Symantec's information security and management solutions arsenal.

Last year, Symantec joined the cloud storage and backup circuit with its Enterprise Vault.cloud and Cloud Storage for Enterprise Vault solutions, in addition to a cloud messaging solution, Symantec Instant Messaging Security cloud (IMS.cloud).

Symantec advised the acquisition will allow it to add to its information governance products, allowing customers to have the choice to store information either on-premise or in Symantec's data centers or a mix of both.

Odyssey Software Acquisition

On March 2, 2012 Symantec completed the acquisition of Odyssey Software (Mobile Device Management), whose main product was - Athena, a device management software that extends Microsoft System Center solutions, adding the ability to manage, support, and control mobile and embedded devices, such as smartphones and ruggedized handhelds.

Nukona Inc., Acquisition

Symantec completed its acquisition of Nukona, a provider of mobile application management (MAM), on April 2, 2012. The acquisition agreement between Symantec and Nukona was announced on March 20, 2012.