Symantec To Expand Cloud Presence with Purchase of MessageLabs

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 10/13/08

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Symantec Corp. has agreed to acquire MessageLabs, a provider of online messaging and Web security services, for about $695 million. MessageLabs sells managed services for anti-spam, anti-virus, image control, content filtering, instant messaging security, boundary and policy encryption, and e-mail arching and backup. The acquisition is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year.

With the purchase of MessageLabs, Symantec gains momentum in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) segment and strengthens its lead in the messaging security market.

MessageLabs has 8 million end users at 19,000 clients being managed out of 14 data centers around the world. Symantec said in a statement that it will be able to capitalize on cross-selling and up-selling its existing SaaS offerings of backup, storage, and online remote access into the MessageLabs customer base.

Future SaaS offerings, leveraging Symantec technology in data loss prevention, compliance, endpoint security, and archiving, will be enhanced by MessageLabs' expertise in SaaS sales, operations, and support.