Symantec Buys Vontu for $350 Million

Symantec has announced it will be acquiring data loss prevention company Vontu for $350 million, entering the already-competitive data security market.

Security software developer Symantec has announced it will spend $350 to acquire Vontu, a developer of data loss prevention technology. The move puts the company in direct competition with vendors like Trend Micro, Websense, and McAfee, each of whom have made acquisitions of their own in the last year to enter the data security market. Symantec expects its deal with Vontu will close by the end of 2007.

“The combination of Symantec’s existing portfolio and Vontu’s leading products and dedicated team enables us to deliver a central component of our Security 2.0 vision to customers information-centric security that protects both the device and the information itself,” said Symantec’s security and data management group president Tom Kendra, in a statement.

Data loss prevention software has focused on the corporate and enterprise markets, and is designed to detect sensitive information traversing a network and prevent that information from escaping the network on notebooks, portable storage devices, or via network communications. The technology helps businesses comply with federal regulations on protection of sensitive data and state regulations on data-breach notifications; however, the technology is also seen as having a future in mainstream consumer operating systems as users become increasingly concerned about safeguarding their personal information and home networks. Sensitive information can include everything from credit card and bank accuont information, to social security numbers, tomedical records, account histories, and even photos and video.

Symantec has already been shipping Vontu software as an add-on to its Mail Security 8300 appliances; the company plans to integrate Vontu technology into its Endpoint Protection 11 corporate antivirus package. After that, the company will begin looking at its backup and data archiving products.