Financial terms were not released. But Carlin Wiegner, a senior director of Web security at Symantec, said that the Cupertino, California-based company agreed to pay all cash for 100-employee IMlogic, and expects the deal to close later this quarter. IMlogic, headquartered in Boston, sells the IM Manager software, which secures public and corporate IM networks while providing companies a means to monitor and archive IM traffic.
Security companies have largely focused on protecting e-mail servers up to now, but they're starting to turn their attention to instant messaging as it grows in popularity. In November, MessageLabs, a hosted e-mail and Web security specialist, acquired privately held OmniPod, which operates a hosted and secure IM platform.
"We took a look at the trend of IM and found that an amazing number of corporations were using it," Wiegner said. "We decided that it was going to be big, but the problem there is it still has the same risks as e-mail."
IMlogic said Tuesday in the United States that IM networks saw an 826 percent rise in security attacks last month compared with the same period a year earlier.
Not only does privately held IMlogic secure Symantec's presence in IM security, the purchase also signals that the company's 2-year old buying binge continues. In the past two years, Symantec has bought BindView Development, Brightmail, Liric, Sygate Technologies, Turntide, WholeSecurity and storage giant Veritas Software. In October, executives said that the company planned to make six to eight acquisitions a year with a major deal coming every 18 months.
