McAfee acquires Secure Computing

McAfee has announced a bid for competitor Secure Computing, to complement its own range of services in the management of security risks on networks. McAfee's CEO, Dave DeWalt, said that following the acquisition the company would continue to focus on security solutions and that this deal, worth around $465 million, would make McAfee the leading provider of Security Risk Management (SRM) products. After the incorporation of Secure Computing he reckoned on achieving annual sales of some $500 million in that division alone.

McAfee was able to show clear double-digit growth in sales at the end of the first quarter of 2008, taking it up to almost $370 million. The second quarter yielded a record take of almost $400 million, 26 per cent above the previous year's figure. Secure Computing will now be contributing an established clientele of some 22,000 companies worldwide. Last year, it made sales worth around $238 million. McAfee's portfolio of security products includes antivirus and firewall software, VPN, intrusion detection/prevention, and web filters. Secure Computing only recently announced its takeover of Securify, a provider of access control devices.

(jbe)