News
McAfee, Inc. to Acquire SafeBoot B.V. for $350 Million
October 2007 by Marc Jacob
McAfee, Inc. announced a definitive agreement to acquire
privately owned SafeBoot B.V. for $350 million in cash. SafeBoot is an
enterprise security software vendor that is a leader in the rapidly growing market for data protection via encryption and access control.
SafeBoot delivers enterprise-class encryption and leads the mobile
security market with its fully integrated end-point security and content
encryption solutions. Adding SafeBoot’s technologies and products will extend
McAfee’s Security Risk Management vision, and position McAfee as the leading
security vendor to offer data loss prevention and encryption at the end-point
with scalable centralized management.
The rationale for the transaction is as follows:
– With the acquisition of SafeBoot, McAfee becomes the leader in a
multi-billion data protection market that is highly under-penetrated
– McAfee has more than 100 million desktops under management and believes
SafeBoot offers a strong complement to its existing offerings
– SafeBoot’s end-point encryption franchise coupled with McAfee’s Data
Loss Prevention and ePolicyOrchestrator management capability creates a
compelling, industry-leading data protection solution
– McAfee, with its worldwide distribution network, expects to leverage
SafeBoot’s highly acclaimed product line which is currently offered in
over 20 languages and in 76 countries
– Encryption addresses all three of McAfee’s market segments from the
enterprise of one to the enterprise of thousands
– Finally, SafeBoot’s mobile phone offerings will help accelerate
McAfee’s current mobile solutions by allowing McAfee to offer a new
comprehensive suite of integrated device protection and data security.
Based on conservative assumptions, McAfee expects this transaction to be
dilutive to 2008 GAAP earnings per share and neutral to 2008 non-GAAP earnings
per share.
Following the closing, SafeBoot’s technologies and McAfee’s Data Loss
Prevention solutions will become the foundation for a new Data Protection
product business unit, headed by Gerhard Watzinger who will report to McAfee
CEO Dave DeWalt.
SafeBoot is the encryption vendor to more than 4,200 customers, including
more than 150 listed in the Fortune 500. Its customer base is geographically
diverse, with about 47 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, 29 percent
in North America, and 23 percent in Asia Pacific. The company retained almost
all of its customers in 2006.
The SafeBoot Data Protection Suite enables users to encrypt individual
files and folders as well as the entire local hard drive for the widest
possible range of mobile devices, including laptops, smart phones, USB drives
and PDAs. SafeBoot data protection suite also enables users to encrypt file
servers and provides protection to ensure that confidential files remain
secure as they move throughout an organization. The company has focused on the
enterprise market and offers centralized management as well as the ability to
integrate with existing IT systems, support for a wide range of platforms,
multiple languages and comprehensive auditing. McAfee plans to integrate these
products into ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO), McAfee’s centralized management
console for enterprise customers.
By adding SafeBoot’s encryption technology and enterprise management
tools, McAfee will further advance its enterprise data protection offerings,
and pursue SafeBoot’s significant and untapped opportunities in the SMB and
consumer markets. This combination will enable McAfee customers to deploy
encryption technology that is integrated with McAfee security solutions, while
providing SafeBoot customers with the ability to integrate McAfee products
into their current SafeBoot deployment.
The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2007 pending
regulatory reviews.
Related articles:
