IBM to buy Internet Security for $1.3 billion
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IBM , the world's largest  information-technology company, on Wednesday said it agreed to  buy Internet Security Systems Inc.  for $1.3 billion,  continuing an acquisition drive to fuel growth.
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Microsoft Corp.  said on Tuesday it would buy anti-virus software maker Sybari Software Inc. in its second such deal in three months to shore up security in its Windows and e-mail software, which are the most frequent targets of malicious programmers.
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America Online will begin offering to sell members a security device and service that has been used to safeguard business computer networks, the world's largest Internet service provider said on Monday.
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(InfoWorld) - Having previously made major product announcements around data and information management, IBM focused on the third leg of that strategy, content management, on Tuesday, including the vendor's first major release of its acquired FileNet technology. A year ago,Â IBM announced it would invest an additional $1 billion in data management to focus on software and services to help customers better manage and gain insight from their data. The vendor followed that up with the launch of its Information Server software in October based on technology it gained through theÂ $1.1 billion purchase of Ascential in 2005. Now, it's content management's turn. FileNet P8 4.0 released Tuesday is the first major version of the ECM (enterprise content management) software sinceÂ IBM bought FileNet in October for $1.6 billion. The software allows users to capture, manage, access, and bring together content from across their operations, automating records management and making it easier for companies to meet compliance requirements. New in the release is a J2EE-based content engine and content federation services for third-party repositories so that a company can carry out functions including search, classification, storage, updating, and deletion of content held in data stores from a variety of different software vendors. Federation is vital because it's "impossible" that any enterprise would be able to store all its content in a single repository, Steve Mills, senior vice president of IBM's software group, said during a conference call. Some enterprises currently have as many as 20 different content stores, he added. Franklin Alvarez, manager of computer applicationsÂ forÂ construction services, at utility company Consolidated Edison Company of New York, welcomed IBM's purchase of FileNet. His firm has been an IBM customer for more than 35 years and a FileNet user for more than 15 years. "We were very happy to see the two come together," he said. "It gives us real synergies to leverage." The utility begun deploying FileNet's P8 in late 2004 to automate a large amount of manual functions, particularly in the transfer of data back and forth between the company and outside agencies, such as the Department of Transportation. Alvarez's unit is responsible for the excavation work involved in laying new electricity cables or gas pipelines and in repairing existing systems in New York City --Â all tasks that require continual liaison with multiple New York agencies to obtain work permits. The utility is also keen to put more content, such as layouts of systems and compliance specifications, into the hands of its workforce while they're at excavation sites. Con Edison also uses the business process management piece of the ECM software to capture knowledge from its aging workforce, Alvarez said. "Our company is cradle to grave," he added. "It's not uncommon for someone to work here for 30 to 40 years." IBM also debuted a new Web 2.0 interface for its Content Manager OnDemand software so that users can access content held in all the vendor's ECM offerings via a Web browser. IBM's Mills wouldn't comment on whether the vendor is likely to make more ECM acquisitions. In general, he expects IBM to continue on its current run-rate of acquiring around a dozen companies annually. In the wake of a recent flurry of announcements from pureplay ECM players targeting the midmarket, IBM will continue to look at how best to serve the content management needs of midsize companies. "We're already reaching into the middle and have some skinnyed-down products," Mills said. Â
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IBM moved back into the iSCSI (Internet SCSI) market Friday with a new array priced at US$3,000 and aimed at the small and midsize business market.
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IBM has added a new feature to WebSphere Application Server designed to help safeguard Internet business applications against outages.
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Computer Associates International Inc has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire security software solutions provider Netegrity Inc in an all cash merger valued at approximately $430 million.
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Lenovo Group Ltd. will purchase IBMâs personal computer business for $1.25 billion including $650 million in cash and $600 million in stock plus $500 million of debt assumption.
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(InfoWorld) - IBM owns some of the world's leading IT security talent, products, and services, but executives with the massive company say it will likely never aim to become what people might label as a true "security vendor." The technology giant has added high-profile security assets in the last year alone, acquiring such companies as applications testing specialist Watchfire in June 2007 and managed services and hardware giant ISS in Aug. 2006. However, unlike rivals like Microsoft -- which has moved to stake a claim in the anti-virus, messaging, and collaboration security segments with its own products -- executives say that Big Blue is more interested in blending security further into its existing products and services than it is hopeful of becoming a more mainstream security provider. Under IBM's control are security offerings that range from its Tivoli group's identity management and compliance software packages to the gateway appliances made by ISS and outsourcing services provided by its Global Technology Services unit. Yet the common theme throughout the company's overarching strategy is not one that emphasizes competition in hot markets or via standalone products, executives say, but rather an approach that attempts to mix security skills into almost all of its existing business lines as a component of its larger vision. "We're not really focused on selling a bunch of security products and services. Our drive is to embed as much security capability as possible in the platforms we have, along with our operating systems, business services, and everything else," said Stuart McIrvine, director of IBM corporate security strategy." "Security is absolutely one of the core critical areas where IBM is focused as a corporation," he said. "But it's more about making it easier for customers to manage all these technologies that we offer and make those technologies more secure themselves." Repeating that IBM is in the business of marketing "secure business solutions," versus selling security products, McIrvine said that the company approaches its strategy under a three-pronged approach that centers on infrastructure security, corporate risk management, and compliance automation. All of those efforts tie back into the notion of lowering customers' security concerns either by bolstering the onboard protection of its products or fostering business controls that benefit areas like regulatory compliance, the executive said. Case in point is the just-underway work to integrate Watchfire's applications scanning tools into IBM's own Rational software development platform. The effort is being undertaken in the name of helping businesses drive security further into their own software development efforts, a trend that is currently sweeping across that sector. And while industry experts say that customers are only just beginning to build security testing into their software development process, IBM's move to stay ahead of the trend was validated when rival HP purchased applications scanning provider SPI Dynamics to blend into its own Mercury platform just weeks after the Watchfire deal was announced. Along with augmenting its perimeter protection capabilities via ISS, expanding identity management tools across many of its business lines, and fostering data governance efforts to benefit issues like compliance and data leakage prevention, IBM is, however, focused on growing its presence in some burgeoning security niches. Among those are management of encryption technologies and enterprise data discovery, which will fold accordingly into many of Big Blue's existing offerings, McIrvine said. "Encryption key management has been around a long time, but because encryption is growing so quickly and there are so many different areas that require keys, companies are struggling with the overall process of adopting it more broadly," McIrvine said. "It's a very complex area, and admittedly we still have a lot of work to do on it ourselves, but there's an opportunity for tools and services that manage the entire encryption key lifecycle, and we're doing a lot of research and development in that area." One of the hallmarks of companies trying to avoid data breaches and comply with state and federal data-handling regulations is that most of the organizations still have problems figuring out where all of their sensitive information is stored and how it is accessed, the executive said. Those factors will continue to drive interest in so-called e-discovery tools, and IBM can parcel the systems into its data governance, compliance management, and managed services businesses as demand for the technology evolves, according to McIrvine. "Discovery is an example of a less mature market that will become increasingly mainstreamed over the next two to three years and where we think it makes sense for us to invest," he said. Industry watchers observed that it is sometimes hard to understand exactly what IBM's overarching security strategy may be, but the experts admitted that the challenge therein may lie in taking account of the diverse range of products and services that the company is adding security components in support of. IBM will likely deal with growing pains as it works to integrate all of its security acquisitions and products, said Paul Stamp, analyst with Forrester Research. However, the company has added some compelling security assets over time, he said. "I don't think you'll ever see IBM go out and try to buy all the pieces needed to become a true security player, as it were, but they can offer customers a significant portion of what they might need, especially in relation to their other products," Stamp said. "They have made a lot of investments; the difficult part for them will be putting everything they have together." Stamp said that IBM will likely use security most effectively to continue to grow the margins of its massive services business. Other experts agreed that IBM has never had a particularly clear security strategy but observed that it has added pieces that fit its corporate goals around building true "solutions" packages." "The problem in understanding IBM's security vision is that it is scattered around so many divisions, and something like risk management is not a product that we can talk about in traditional terms," said Andrew Jaquith, analyst with Yankee Group. "I don't think we'll ever look at IBM as a security company in the pure sense, it's not in their DNA, but we will see that they provide elements of security throughout their offerings." "I typically avoid the word 'solution' as it's usually misleading, but in this case with IBM and security is actually fits because they have hardware software and services, and they will continue to pull those packages together in a way that also includes security," the analyst said.
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The deal makes the Chinese company the world&#39;s third biggest PC maker and pushes IBM to the sidelines of a field it once ruled.
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IBM  said on Wednesday it is  buying privately held AptSoft Corp to expand its business event  processing software portfolio.
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BEIJING - China&#39;s largest personal computer maker, Lenovo Group Ltd, announced on Wednesday that it is buying control of IBM&#39;s PC-making business for US$1.25 billion, capping the US tech giant&#39;s gradual withdrawal from the business it helped pioneer in
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Good news for big business, but what about SMBs? Comment Last week IBM announced that it was acquiring US-based Internet Security Systems (ISS) for $1.3bn.â¦
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A Chinese company has become the third largest PC seller in the world by buying IBM&#39;s personal computer business. Lenovo has bought the business for USD 1.25 billion, of which USD650m is in cash and the rest in Lenovo shares.
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U.S. stocks to watch on Wednesday: IBM  CORP. IBM.N: The computer maker said it sealed deals worth  more than $1 billion in new work with two European companies  from which the information technology company just acquired two  Danish services providers.
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(InfoWorld) - EMC Corp. will spend US$175 million to acquire security information provider Network Intelligence Corp. The privately held Westwood, Massachusetts, company sells appliances that probe computer networks, providing security and compliance analysis. EMC's latest acquisition, expected to close late Monday, underscores the growing importance of security technology to the storage vendor. Also on Monday, EMC announced that it had completed its $2.1 billion purchase of RSA Security, which will form the basis of a new RSA-branded security division within the company. Former RSA CEO Art Coviello will head up this division, which will absorb the Network Intelligence business unit, EMC said in a statement. Founded in 1996, Network Intelligence has more than 125 employees, according to the company's Web site. With these latest acquisitions, EMC hopes to be able to sell security as part of a broader product portfolio, said Joe Tucci, EMC's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "It's becoming critical that security move beyond a point product solution," he said. Analysts say security companies will find it increasingly difficult to go it alone, with technology giants such as Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM Corp. moving quickly to add security features to their broader product platforms. Just last month, IBM said it would spend $1.3 billion to acquire managed security vendor Internet Security Systems (ISS).ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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Description: China&#39;s largest computer maker, Lenovo, is buying IBM&#39;s personal computer division for an estimated $1.75 billion.