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Microsoft rumored to be making an offer for Symantec
Reports abound this morning that Microsoft may be taking a look at Symantec. After Intel's unexpected purchase of McAfee recently, prevailing sentiment is that other major players may all make similar moves. The rumors stem from analyst Katherine Eggbert's statement that "without a strategic sale or break-up near-term, a high-level management change may perhaps be the next step demanded by anxious shareholders."Take the "news" with a large grain of salt. This isn't the first time rumors have swirled regarding a Symantec purchase. In 2007, there was talk that HP would acquire the company. It's also quite a leap to go from "stock prices can't rise without a purchase offer from someone" to "Microsoft is going to buy Symantec."
Then again, maybe Microsoft does want to buy Symantec -- and then integrate their consumer apps into Security Essentials and their corporate products into Forefront -- and then shut things down. You know, to have the ultimate last laugh about the 2006 lawsuit Symantec filed over Vista. Nah, they're not that nasty... Right?
All joking aside, if the rumors are true Microsoft would stand to gain plenty from the purchase. They'd have an even larger presence in the enterprise and control over the #1 (sales-wise) paid antivirus product for consumers to complement their own free offering, the hugely popular Security Essentials.
Comments
10
Subscribe to comments216Sep 9th 2010 11:52AM
as much as I dont like Norton/Symantec, that'd be a great acquisition for MS and Windows in general. Although the Antivirus market would basically disappear though
yabunSep 9th 2010 12:16PM
This would suck! Forget AV. Symantec has bought a lot of companies over the years (ex. Veritas) and now has a nice collection of patents. This will let MS be even bigger patent d-bag bullies. Result, innovation is restricted and consumer loses.
AshwinSep 9th 2010 12:16PM
Somehow I think there's going to be antitrust complaints that prevent this from happening.
ArnieSep 9th 2010 12:32PM
God I dont want this to happen. Norton's Antivirus for consumers is inferior compared to Security Essentials and I certainly dont want to install that.
ExtantSep 9th 2010 12:33PM
If this does happen, I hope they don't mess with Security Essentials much...my university offers me Symantec Endpoint Protection for free, and I still choose MSE because it is so much lighter weight and doesn't blow through my system resources.
DarakSep 9th 2010 1:35PM
Also, SEP continually gets abysmal protection ratings.
FezSep 9th 2010 12:43PM
This wouldn't make much sense considering that Intel's acquisition of McAffee only makes sense IF they plan to implement some low level form of protection right at the core.
Norton became a great company since it's overhaul back in 2009 and it still ranks amongst the top 5 antiviruses whenever reviewed.
I don't mind this acquisition but I just hope that MS has some great plans with this. I love their security essentials and I would hate to see it turn into a paid service after this acquisition.
John DSep 9th 2010 1:20PM
Given all of the enterprise products they'd gain, it'd be a huge win for the enterprise. Consumer maybe not so much, especially with how well Security Essentials has been received - it'd be a mistake to in anyway associate Symantec with the Security Essentials brand...Symantec is exactly why I use MSE.
pacjack360Sep 9th 2010 7:13PM
MSE is far better than Norton, thus the last thing we need is Norton rubbing off on it
DavidSep 9th 2010 7:24PM
Symantec sells so much more than just anti-virus: http://www.symantec.com/business/products/allproducts.jsp
A lot of those products directly compete with Microsoft, and integrating/eliminating them would be a huge competitive move. Like Ashwin said however, there would be massive antitrust concerns over this. I'd expect they'd have a spin off large parts of the company in order to even have a chance at regulatory approval.