In the past month alone, we’ve seen a number of landmark IT security transactions. Symantec inked the largest-ever software-as-a-service security deal, paying $695m for MessageLabs. The largest pure security vendor, McAfee, announced its biggest deal, doubling down on network security with its $497m purchase of Secure Computing. And the formerly somnolent Sophos shook off its sleepiness to go shopping. It recently closed its $341m purchase of Utimaco, the largest acquisition of a publicly held security company by a private company.
So with all of these big-ticket transactions, overall deal flow in security should be strong, right? Actually, year-to-date totals are running at less than half the level of either of the previous two years. The reason: large consolidation plays have been knocked off the table this year. So far, just one security transaction worth more than $500m has been announced, down from five during the same period last year and four in 2006.
Security M&A totals
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Source: The 451 M&A KnowledgeBase