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IBM to Buy ISS for $1.3 Billion
gerald626 writes "IBM announced today that they have formed an agreement to purchase ISS for 1.3 billion dollars." From the article: " The all-cash transaction of about $28 per share is meant to bolster IBM's ability to deliver security services to corporations, the company said. ISS builds network protection products and services, including intrusion detection and monitoring tools. IBM said it intends to use ISS's expertise and software to provide more robust security-related services to its corporate customers."
...want a space station? To spy on Redmond?
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
IBM: This ISS, could it carry my wisdom beyond the Internet?
Sybok: It could. Yes.
IBM: Then I shall make use of this... ISS.
Sybok: It will be your chariot!
(Kirk politely raises his hand.)
Kirk: Excuse me.
IBM: It will carry my power to every corner of creation...
Kirk: Excuse me! I'd just like to ask a question!
(McCoy looks at Kirk like he just farted in church.)
Kirk: Excuse me, but What does IBM need with a space station?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Maybe in this case it would be wise to spell out the acronym, so we don't all have a tizzy that they're buying *THE* ISS, the one orbiting the Earth.
stuff |
Geez, everyone's telling the same lame "ISS" = "International Space Station" joke.
It's just a typo! Haven't you figured that out yet? IBM simply bought IIS from Microsoft. I wonder if they'll make IIS run on Linux?
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
There are going to be millions of mod point used on -1 Redundant.
That's only because there isn't a -1 Obvious.
Now, back to my job at NASA.
This tagline is copyrighted material. Please send $10 for an affordable replacement.
It is internet security systems: http://iss.net/ I hope blackice remains as a pc firewall, I think it is one of the best
Free yourself use open source.
IBM made a resounding move into security on Wednesday, acquiring Internet Security Systems for $1.3 billion.
The all-cash transaction of about $28 per share is meant to bolster IBM's ability to deliver security services to corporations, the company said.
ISS builds network protection products and services, including intrusion detection and monitoring tools.
IBM said it intends to use ISS's expertise and software to provide more robust security-related services to its corporate customers.
"This acquisition will help IBM to provide companies with access to trained experts and leading-edge processes and technology to evaluate and protect against threats and enforce security policies," said Val Rahmani, general manager of infrastructure management services at IBM Global Services.
The ISS acquisition, expected to close in fourth quarter of this year, adds to a rapid-fire succession of big purchases at IBM. In August alone, IBM has announced plans to buy Webify Solutions, MRO Software and FileNet. The tab, if all the deals go through, will exceed $3.6 billion.
Looking to boost revenue from software and services, most of the company's acquisitions--which total more than 40 since 2003--have been software firms.
IBM is seeking to grow profits by creating a comprehensive product portfolio and deliver a combination of software and consulting services, according to company executives.
With ISS, Big Blue intends to deliver the company's products through consulting engagements and hosted services.
"By delivering an integrated security platform that is adaptable and extensible to address new threats and business requirements without incremental complexity and cost, ISS has delivered the foundation for delivering security as a service," said Tom Noonan, president and CEO of ISS.
IBM already offers some managed security services and includes security software in its Tivoli product line.
IBM's decision to buy the ISS was a fantastic decision. They can now freely ignore the Sarbanes Oxlley laws as well as Monopoly and other laws in every country as the IBM headquarters will not be located in outer space making them immune to earth laws.
Great move on the executives part!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Bad, wicked, naughty Zoot. She's been setting alight to our beacon, which, I just remembered, is space station shaped.
It's not the first time this has happened.
Read any good sonnets lately?
It's a company!
Internet Security Systems. www.iss.net
They do security. That is how IBM will derive security benefits from the purchase. At least that would be the going theory.
ISS has also apparently made a huge impression on Slashdot readers. *smirk*
Although buying a space station and fitting it with an Annihiliation Beam which they can use to hold the world for ransom to the tune of one... million... dollars, would seem to have some shareholder value as well, I didn't know that the shares in the Space Station were only 28$ a share. Or that shares even existed for the space station. It must be those wacky Russians trying to make another few million off space.
This is a horrible move on IBM's part.
ISS is having its clock cleaned in the market, pulled apart by high-performance enterprise IPS vendors (Tipping Point, Juniper, Cisco, and the like) on one side, and having their thunder stolen by platform security vendors (Sygate, Check Point, Netscreen, and, yes, even Cisco) on the other -- not to mention the "built-in" stuff that Microsoft has released and the more advanced platform security controls that the company is prepping for release.
Not too long ago, ISS made the fateful decision to knife most of its IDS/IPS product lines in the back by discontinuing support for "General Purpose" servers and third party appliances, effectively forcing all of its enterprise customers to buy an "owned" ISS appliance (the Proventia series). Companies with large deployments of ISS RealSecure on now End of Lifed platforms suddenly found themselves offered a year of update support and another capital outlay to "upgrade" to Proventia appliances. Not many followed the company down that path, but the ones that did get "first cut" appliances found that they, well, sucked. The company then recentered on a more "appliance"-looking hardware platform, but, by then, the damage was done.
Then ISS took a market-leading desktop security product, BlackICE, and folded it into their IDS/IPS management product. The integration damn near killed a lot of existing BlackICE customers, not to mention the fact that succeeding software releases were, in many cases, incompatible with previous releases. Those customers who bravely rolled out a BlackICE installation found themselves in the unenviable position of having to do the rollout all over again.
Then there's ISS's reputation for "leading-edge" security research. Enter the firing of Michael Lynn related to the Cisco BlackHat presentation... They look like idiots out of the whole ordeal, more interested in protecting their corporate butts from the Cisco PR engine than the disclosure of even SANTITIZED security information.
IBM? Good luck with your new toy. It was broken before you bought it.
Look at the stock price for ISSX, compare that to the purchase price of about $28/share. There is a total "premium" of 7% above the market value of the ISS stock. The only entity making money on this deal is the brokerage firm that handled the transaction.
At the risk of disrupting the fun, I'd like to interject a serious comment. ISS resells some real security technologies that IBM has been missing from their offerings for a long time. In the network security space, they resell some important technology that has traditionally been in the "Cisco camp" and thus mostly implemented by enterprise customers that don't do a lot of business with IBM. This could really change the landscape of enterprise security... in a few years when IBM manages to get ISS integrated into their sales channels.
This is funny, because as someone who has worked for ISS (Internet Security Systems) and frequently reads Slashdot, I've found several articles confusing when people write about /the/ ISS (Space Station) and I think, "Wait, what the hell are we doing?" So I welcome you all to my world of ambiguousness, which won't exist much longer now that it's been bought...
//TODO: signature
when I first started working in infosec (5, 6 years ago) I spent a lot of time downloading and playing with the free trials for various vuln scanners - ISS, Retina, LANGuard and so on. I mentioned this to someone with more security experience who replied "ISS? It's Still Shit, right?"
Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven
First of all, ISS's vulnerability scanner has turned to such a piece of dog doo, I wouldn't touch it with a poop scooper. In 2005, it was installing an vulnerable MSDE onto windows boxes, and just patching the MSDE was enough to break compatibility (This vulnerability has been out for 3 months at the time). On the product side though, ISS's scanners have been thoroughly stomped by Tenable's Nessus and Eeye's Retina.
As far as ISS goes on the IDS/IPS side, their products went from leader to lackluster. Snort, Tipping point, and Intrushield - need I say more?
Then on the vulnerability database side, you have the X-Force DB being demolished by the innovative Open Source Vulnerability Database led by real security gurus like Jericho, not to mention the other DBs like Secunia, NVD, etc.
ISS = vaguely reminds me of CA, corporate types taking good products and not keeping them updated, not innovating, and just trying to suck the blood from corporate customers.
Internet Security Systems They make scanner software. I used it a few years back. It was pretty cool but retina was better. My $.02
MISSING - Sig file. 2 years old black and white and very funny. If found please email me.
"Since the VP is such a VIP, maybe we should keep the PC on the QT. Otherwise he could go MIA, and we'd all end up on KP."
Sounds perfectly nonobfuscationalized to me.
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You may have hit on something here -- if all the world's megacorps decided they needed jurisdiction-free headquarters in space, the problem of humanity being stuck on planet Earth would be solved! Before this decade is out, we could have a space-based population consisting of hundreds of thousands of CxOs, lawyers, accountants, and their support staff.
Perhaps we've been looking in all the wrong places for the Right Stuff? The future of space is... cubicles!
It the start of the "B" Ark. Every one know where their towel is.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
That sounds like it might have been between ST: IV and ST: VI, but we all know that there was no movie in between ST: IV and ST: VI .
It didn't happen, okay!
-Ster
Wow! Now that would make for a popular nuclear missile target I'll bet.