Boston
The Economic Times
The move, McAfee's biggest acquisition to date, helps the No. 2 computer security company expand the bundle of products it can sell to businesses. The deal also boosts the number of companies that use its products.
The Santa Clara, California-based company said on Monday it will pay $5.75 per share of Secure Computing's common stock, representing a 27 percent premium to the San Jose, California, company's closing price of $4.52 on Friday.
Secure Computing shares rose 23 percent to $5.56 on Nasdaq, while McAfee shares fell 1.7 percent to $36.68 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
McAfee Chief Executive Dave DeWalt said the purchase will help round out McAfee's line of products that help protect business networks. The company is best known for anti-virus software for PCs.
Since he joined McAfee in early 2007, DeWalt has used acquisitions to beef up its network security products.
So far McAfee only has "a few thousand" network security customers. The Secure Computing purchase will add 22,000 more customers in that area, he said.
"The market is moving toward bigger vendors with broader suites. That just means more dollars for McAfee," DeWalt said. "That is why we are expanding the portfolio."
Jefferies & Co. analyst Katherine Egbert said that while Secure Computing has great technology for protecting computer networks from hackers, it has a reputation for being difficult to use.
"Strategically the deal makes a lot of sense," Egbert said. "But the challenge is going to be getting their products ready for mass distribution."
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