Symantec to acquire Brightmail

Symantec Corp, the global leader in information security, today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Brightmail, the worldwide leader in anti-spam technology, in a cash transaction valued at approximately $370 million. Brightmail's market-leading anti-spam technology will be a key complement to Symantec's broad array of gateway security solutions.

The acquisition, conditioned upon customary regulatory approval, is expected to close by early July. It is too early to estimate the impact of intangibles on GAAP results from this transaction. As such, Symantec intends to discuss the impact, if any, on GAAP and non-GAAP results at some point in the future.

"Spam has increasingly become one of the most severe threats to individuals and enterprises today, topping viruses as the number one problem plaguing e-mail systems and administrators," said John W Thompson, Symantec chairman and chief executive officer. "Brightmail is the leader in helping enterprises, service providers and wireless carriers mitigate this threat. Their patented technology is a critical component of a comprehensive gateway security solution."

"We've built a complete spam defence offering that includes multiple technologies such as proactive heuristic and reputation-based blocking for the most robust, multi-layered defence, providing the highest accuracy rating in the industry, " said Enrique Salem, Brightmail president and chief executive officer. "By joining forces with Symantec, we can provide our combined base of customers around the world with the broadest messaging security solution in the industry."

Brightmail's industry-leading anti-spam technology protects the networks of enterprises, service providers, and wireless carriers by filtering spam, viruses and undesired messages at the Internet gateway. Brightmail Anti-Spam uses multiple proprietary technologies, a globally deployed detection network, and a dynamic rule delivery mechanism to identify and filter unsolicited or unwanted electronic messages while reducing the number of blocked legitimate e-mails, or false positives, to less than one message in a million.

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Brightmail Anti-Virus already combines Symantec's award-winning anti-virus technology with Brightmail's high-performance, scalable architecture. By stopping and cleaning infected messages at the Internet gateway, Brightmail Anti-Virus is the solution for the world's largest service providers to protect their networks and end-users from the threat of e-mail-borne viruses.

The Brightmail Reputation Service complements its anti-spam product, providing businesses with an additional level of security against messaging security threats by allowing them to block messages from identified spam sources. Brightmail Anti-Fraud protects established businesses from fraudulent e-mails that mimic legitimate communications in order to steal financial or personal data.

Symantec made a strategic investment in Brightmail in July 2000 and currently holds an approximately 11% equity stake in the company. Subsequent to the filing of a registration statement in March 2004 for an initial public offering, Brightmail's board of directors and stockholders determined the combination with Symantec to be a more favourable strategic alternative.