Symantec buys LiveOffice for US$115m

Symantec has acquired LiveOffice, an archiving company, for US$115 million. With the move, Symantec bolsters its cloud-computing chops so that it can play more of an on-premise and software as a service (SaaS) game.

The LiveOffice acquisition highlights a broader trend. Traditional enterprise-software players are gobbling up cloud players. SAP bought SuccessFactors, and Oracle bought RightNow. Both of those deals are likely to be just the beginning.

In a statement, Symantec said that it will use LiveOffice to bolster its information-governance unit. LiveOffice provides a cloud-based archiving system.

Symantec also said that it is better integrating its e-discovery and archiving software. It will integrate its Clearwell e-discovery platform and its Enterprise Vault software.

LiveOffice and Symantec were already partners. Here's how LiveOffice's archiving system works, in a nutshell:

(Credit: LiveOffice)

In a blog post, Symantec said:

A major force already driving us along the information-governance path is the C word: cloud. As organisations adopt (willingly or otherwise!) hosted mail, Dropbox, Box.net, Chatter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc, we need to retain, secure and analyse that data as well. To enable that move of enterprise data to the cloud, the archive needs to, as well ...

LiveOffice, with its talented team and cloud-archiving technology, will improve our ability to connect people to information, wherever it resides, for two key reasons. First, we see a tremendous opportunity to leverage the resources of Symantec to better reach, support and deliver integrated solutions to our customers. Those integrations can be not only supporting information governance as discussed here, but also providing a complete cloud mail-protection solution. Second, we have come to know the LiveOffice organisation well through our OEM relationship, and see a strong cultural fit between our teams' DNA, standard of excellence and customer focus.

Via ZDNet US