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Symantec to Buy Veritas
jortega writes "Symantec is looking into buying Veritas for $13bn." The linked article is mostly about biz stuff. Seems like a kind of strange deal to me.
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The BBC and others are reporting that it's a done deal. In a merger deal valued at $13.5bn (£7bn) the all-share deal will see Symantec swap 1.1242 shares of common stock for each Veritas share.
doesn't like this much, Symantec is down 8% and Veritas is down slightly as well, and so far has failed to approach the takeover price of around $30 bucks a share. Probably due to increased competition in the secuiruty market.
This makes Symantec a one-stop shop for all things IT enterprise/security related: anti-virus, anti-spam, data recovery, network security, etc.
Who does Symantec think they are? Computer Associates?
This is probably a good thing. I sure as hell wouldn't install anything from Symantic without doing a backup first.
Is anyone sick of all the buyouts/mergers recently? AT&T/Cingular, Sprint/Verizon?
AT&T/Cingular made sense. Their networks are very similar.
Sprint is merging with Nextel, not Verizon. This makes less sense and they are looking to essentialy keep two seperate networks running.
what's a antivirus company want with a backup company?
What's the first thing you wonder when your network gets infected? When was the last time I backed up my data?
It's a perfect fit.
What's a antivirus company want with a backup company?
Microsoft is finally integrating antivirus into Windows. This leaves Symantec without a bunch of their revenue. They need to branch out.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Symantec isn't actually buying the company, they're giving them a bunch of copies of Norton Antivirus and will slowly drive them into bankruptcy via the subscription fees. At which point they'll take over the company based on the money owed.
- AntiVirus
- Personal Firewalls
- AntiSpam
- SystemWorks
- LiveState Recovery, etc.
Buying Veritas gives them an improved Backup and Recovery offering than what they currently have.You sly dog: you got me monologuing! - Syndrome
Symantec stock is only up 200% over the last two years.
"what's a antivirus company want with a backup company?"
What's the first thing you wonder when your network gets infected? When was the last time I backed up my data?
Or, "Why the %#!?& are we paying so much for anti-virus software that doesn't stop my network from getting infected!?!"
We resell Veritas on every major server we build, and when I mentioned the aquisition this morning the comment from everyone was effectivly "I guess we will need to find new backup software to sell with our servers." It wasn't even a thought, we just don't want to deal with symantec.
I agree...
On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
I regularly used Symantec Ghost at work which is indeed backup software. Its not a new area for Symantec . Ghost is already awsome, and widely used in the industry. Hopefully this will bring in some new technologies to make it better yet. =) Note: Norton Ghost is the home version.
Microsoft has purchased an anti-spyware company, so in fact Microsoft might simultaneously be entering the security market to compete with Symantec. This news is fresh, and might be depressing the market's enthusiasm about Symantec/Veritas.
I know I would diversify if I were them. With predictions of new vulnerabilities being exploited within hours it seems like anti-virus software would be a risky business to be in right now. If a major organization got rooted via an exploit that their software didn't protect them from quickly enough they might try to sue Symantec for failing to provide adequate protection. I don't think such a case would be have much merit or be successful, but it would still cost money to defend against it. It might be a very savvy move to have another field to expand into if the market on AV got tight.
-- Gargonia
Never play leapfrog with a unicorn.
Or perhaps more accurately, Symantec is hedging their bets. With Microsoft likely to bundle anti-virus with their OS, it's wise to have something else to lean on should their bread and butter suddenly get a big bite taken out of it.
...Master of None.
Once, long ago, Peter Norton made some damn good tools for DOS. Then came their antivirus product, and it was pretty good, too.
Then came Symantec, and so far I'm not impressed with anything they've done. Have they done anything? Other than buy other companys' products and rebrand them?
All the cool stuff, like Ghost, Tools and AV, came from Norton. The Raptor/Velociraptor firewalls were purchased.
Veritas makes some good stuff. Unfortunately, I believe Symantec will fix that over time.
Mediocre seems to be their watchword.
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
it was conner backup exec in 1993.
then it was purchased by acada (? - acadia)
then it was purchased by seagate
then it was purchased by veritas
and amazingly enough, backup exec has continued to get better over time.
eric
from the art:
...It would be somewhat surprising to see Veritas agree to an acquisition , given that the company's CEO Gary Bloom has long said he thinks Veritas can grow at a steady pace on its own. Veritas has acquired numerous companies over the past two years, trying to build out its server software portfolio....
Gary Bloom used to work for Oracle...he was the VP that oversaw Oracle's swallowing of e-travel so he knows exactly what he is up against. [disclosure...I was one of a small handful of SW engineers who escaped with some dot.com lucre when Oracle later disgorged e-travel.]
I would look at Symantec buying Veritas as a defensive move...EMC has moved into new markets aggressively and managing the security of all that data they already store/fetch would be logical. It would also seriously crimp a growth path that Symantec could take into the same market space from its position as a security provider.
Now, who can tell me if I should sell my VRTS?
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Would it not be sick, evil irony if we all found out that, after Symantec purchases Veritas, Symantec's "other" software lines include:
- Symantec Virus DevStudio 7
- Symantec Spam Server 5
- Symantec Gator
- Symantec Hard Drive Eraser 4
- Symantec Registry Hoser XP
- Symantec Network Trojan 5.5
- Symantec EZ Spyware 4
- Symantec RAID Drive Ejector 3
That would pretty much cover their business development needs for the OTHER product line that we're already aware of.
IronChefMorimoto
The "synergies" aren't meant to benefit the consumer. They are to benefit the investors and the corporate executives. Consumers benefit from competition in the marketplace, mergers of this scale are reductive of competition.
The point is to reduce costs, increase profits, and give all that extra money to the hard working execs and the hard working wall street types who make the deal happen, and let enough dribble down to the investors so that they don't make a stink. Screw everyone else.
this is getting old and so are you
blog
"Seems like a kind of strange deal to me."
Not to me. If you ever get into the infosec theory stuff, you'll study the CIA acronym; the "A" in it stands for availability, and that's what backups provide.
A backup company is a smart addition to a security company.
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge
I remember the good old days of "Tristep" - their old contract-to-hire company... When I asked what it stood for, I was told:
1 foot in the door
1 foot out the door
1 foot in your ass
Not sure who they're using now, but employees I've kept in touch with indicate that it's gotten more efficient: they wear cleats now.
*I am not the backup guy*
Oh, phrases, how I love thee.
One time, when I was the backup guy and I wasn't afraid to disclose my knowledge of backupexec, I became the *backup guy*. This damned me into restoring peoples resumes and digital pictures for the rest of my employment.
When he learns his lesson, he'll again become ignorant. For now, he probably just does it because it's an IT job and the pay is OK.
I know- don't bother telling me: You won't be buying my product anyway - but anything that hurts their marketshare helps ours :)
Do you really work for CA? Is CA as aware of how people feel about them? If the answer to these questions is yes, why doesn't CA do something about it? Why must CA destroy products and anger customers?
The world of Information Security has been turned on its ear in the past two years. Little - if any - corporate security measures are focused on methodology such as Threat Analysis or Risk Assessment. The brave new world is mandated compliance - with Sarbanes-Oxley taking the lead at publicly-traded corporations.
Symantec probably has their eye on the data-retention provisions of SOX and GLBA. This is their sales message - because CEO's get jail-time for SOX violations.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Why is the percentage of H1Bs a key question? I don't get it. Is this just another xenophobic rant or is there a relevant point to this question?
If a company honestly does its business, thus providing valuable services to willing companies, is that not enough? Why is it important for corporations to support your favorite charity? A corporation is not a person, so why personify it and assign moral points to it?
Sorry, I just don't get your post. Could you kindly expand on it?
Thanks.
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I think this may improve Veritas. :)
If anyone in the support industry has been watching Veritas lately, you'd know that while they offer some nice feature-rich products, said products generally don't always install out of the box and *work* properly. This has been a problem with niche OSes (i.e. Netware) for a few years and the problem is starting to creep into the Windows products (i.e. Backup Exec 9.x) as well. In fact, it reminds me of Computer Associates...
Symantec Products, regardless of what you think of them, generally work out of the box without much hassle. They are not perfect, but they're pretty feature-complete and work quite well. We use Symantec AntiVirus Corp. Edition a LOT in the field because it works and has a decent management interface--McAfee doesn't work as well, CA's eTrust doesn't have good management tools... etc. It's the _least bad_ of the products on offer (Trend Micro is pretty good too, but I still like the centralized Symantec AV Console--it's quite clean)
There aren't a lot of great feature-complete backup offerings out there (the archival storage industry has always lagged behind IMO - look at how expensive good-quality tape drives still are) thus Veritas *almost* has a monopoly on the market, especially for SMBs. As they've gotten bigger over the past few years (once they spun off from Seagate Software) the quality of their product has (I think) dropped dramatically.
I still like Symantec overall- they do a decent job considering the size of the company. They've still got some neat products. Their antivirus division is industry-leading. I can't say that about every huge software company out there... most generally start crumbling under their own weight.
So I'm optimistic...
(is it just my imagination, or can Backup Exec trace its lineage to Norton Backup?
is it:
Norton Backup -> Norton Backup Exec -> Seagate Software Backup Exec -> Veritas Backup Exec -> Symantec Backup Exec?
I could be dreaming)
Nextel is going to be migrating their iDEN network to be based on cdma2000 (and therefore on the migration path for EV-DV, etc.) This is actually a good thing for Nextel, their walkie-talkies are popular, but as a cellphone network, they suck. Certainly, part of this will be making Sprint and Nextel's Push-to-talk offering compatible. Merging with Sprint will give both companies the opportunity for more growth (IMO) then apart.
What's a antivirus company want with a backup company?
Veritas isn't a "backup" company. They provide enterprise storage solutions. I bet Veritas File System (VxFS) and Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) provide them with much more revenue then BackupExec and NetBackup.
I wonder what sort of effect (if any) this will have on HP's recent decision to scrap the integration of Tru64 clustering and volume management into HP-UX, and license Veritas products to bundle instead.
If you had any sort of knowledge of Symantec operations, you'd be aware that Symantec outsourced 270 (38%) of their perms in Oregon in 2002. Then in June it cut 206 (30%) of them. That's based off a total of about 700 workers. You're telling me that 30-40 percent suddenly weren't productive?
Stop being a pedantic shithead for a minute, and consider the statistical probability of 38% of a permanent workforce suddenly becoming unproductive.
Simply, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. You're neither familiar with their operations, nor are you versed in their history.
I do. I've worked for them when their products were decent. I moved on to a better company, and have watched as they've utterly destroyed what used to be a great product line and employee environment. Of course, losing Dana Seibert didn't help things either.
I don't dislike the employees and contractors of Symantec - if anything I feel sorry for them, as they're receiving the short end of the stick on a regular basis.
CEO John Thompson though? He's utterly destroyed the cohesiveness and quality focus that existed before, and now he's about to destroy Veritas. And that - that is sad.