The merger of Symantec Corp and Veritas Software Corp., announced late last year, will create the fourth largest independent software company focusing on providing information and security integrity across enterprises.
John Thompson, chairman and CEO, told investors this week that the merger of the two companies, to be closed by June 2005, will create a company that can better protect the integrity of systems and information in companies.
Thompson added security now involves more than simply protecting system against viruses and software vulnerabilities, but requires an integrated approach to have solutions that both protect and manage system architectures and the information within those systems.
“The aims of storage management, systems management, network management and security are starting to intersect and the best way to protect customer enterprise infrastructures is to have a combination of technologies,” Thompson said.
Thompson added while Symantec was able to provide some of that security and management support through the company’s earlier acquisitions in 2003 of PowerQuest Corp. and in 2004 of ON Technology Corp., Symantec decided it needed an additional set of solutions that cover a wider range of enterprise environments, including those that are non-Windows. The merger with Veritas Software, a provider of utility computing solutions for managing infrastructure costs, gives both companies a better means of addressing issues of security and storage management issues that Thompson said are the top priorities of CIOs.
“The products (of both companies) represent the broadest portfolio of capabilities to address the heterogeneous nature of large enterprises, in both security, storage management and a range of other areas,” Thompson said in an earlier press conference on the merger.
According to IDC, the market opportunity for the newly merged companies could be near US$56 billion by 2007.