McAfee to buy SafeBoot for US$350M

Security software vendor McAfee will acquire SafeBoot for US$350 million in an effort to expand its large-business product line, the company announced this week.

The acquisition of SafeBoot, a security software vendor focusing on encryption and access control, will expand McAfee's risk management services, the company said. SafeBoot focuses on the large-business and mobile security markets.

SafeBoot, a private company based in the Netherlands, will be a "strong complement" to McAfee's existing offerings, McAfee said in a press release. The data protection market is "highly under-penetrated," the company added.

McAfee plans to integrate SafeBoot's encryption products with its Data Loss and ePolicyOrchestrator management products, McAfee said. Encryption products can be targeted toward all sizes of McAfee customers, from individual users to large businesses, McAfee said.

"SafeBoot's industry-leading mobile security solutions address a critical pain point for customers -- the protection of confidential and proprietary information," Dave DeWalt, McAfee's president and CEO, said in a statement. "With the acquisition of SafeBoot, McAfee becomes a leader in the fast-growing US$1 billion encryption market, and we will be able to offer a complete data protection solution that combines SafeBoot's device, full-disk and content encryption with McAfee's data loss prevention solutions."

Following the deal's closing, SafeBoot's technologies and McAfee's Data Loss Prevention solutions will become the foundation for a new Data Protection product business unit, McAfee said.

SafeBoot is the encryption vendor to more than 4,200 customers, including more than 150 listed in the Fortune 500. About 47 percent of its customer base is in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, 29 percent in North America, and 23 percent in the Asia-Pacific region.

The SafeBoot Data Protection Suite enables users to encrypt individual files and folders, as well as the entire local hard drive.

The acquisition will allow McAfee to expand its large-business data protection offerings, as well as pursue untapped opportunities in the small and medium-sized business and consumer markets, McAfee said

The companies expect the acquisition to close in the fourth quarter. The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

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