PatchLink buying SecureWave

As predicted by industry watchers, the security sector continues to experience significant consolidation in 2007, with PatchLink becoming the latest buyer in announcing a deal to acquire endpoint security specialists SecureWave on June 18.

Under the terms of the deal, proposed as an all stock transaction for which additional financial figures were not released, SecureWave shareholders will have the next several weeks to decide whether or not they want to accept the PatchLink bid.

As part of the agreement, the companies reported that venture backers Mangrove Capital Partners, the primary shareholders in SecureWave — which is based in Luxembourg — will be given a seat on the PatchLink board of directors if the deal is approved.

Company officials pitched the deal as a marriage of complimentary security tools.

SecureWave’s flagship Sanctuary product line offers unified policy enforcement for management and monitoring of endpoint device and applications use, to protect against data leakage and malware attacks.

Combined with Scottsdale, Ariz.-based PatchLink’s vulnerability management solutions — which offer to automate security update and vulnerability remediation tasks — company leaders said that the firm would be able to sell itself as an integrated provider of “policy-based enterprise security solutions.”

In practical terms, the merger should give the combined company the ability to position itself as an integrated endpoint security provider, covering everything from software patch updates to data leakage prevention.

“The technical and geographic synergies between the two companies made this a logical next step in moving towards unified protection and control that cuts across multiple departments within an enterprise,” Bob Johnson, CEO of SecureWave, said in a statement. “This combination provides our customers and our partners with a best-of-breed product portfolio based on the positive security model that consolidates infrastructure, unifies management and administration, lowers cost of ownership and provides end-to-end risk reduction.”

The march among vendors to pull together security applications into integrated packages with centralized management capabilities continues at a dizzying rate, with such deals and the launch of products including market-leader Symantec’s Endpoint Protection 11.0 — introduced June 13 and due out this Fall — moving the idea of such blended technologies from the conceptual stage into real world deployments.

PatchLink officials labeled the combination of its technologies with those of SecureWave as a “comprehensive security platform for unified protection and control of all enterprise servers and endpoints.”

The company significantly broadened its ability to provide vulnerability management tools with the acquisition of Harris STAT in Feb. 2007. At that time, PatchLink officials also hinted that the firm could be considering a name change to reflect its extended set of security skills, as it has moved far beyond simple patch remediation.

“Through significant organic growth and strategic acquisitions, PatchLink is evolving into a global provider of security solutions for the world’s largest and most demanding IT environments,” Pat Clawson, the firm’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “We believe PatchLink is now poised to capitalize on a significant market opportunity as the de facto provider of policy-based enterprise security solutions.”

In the same note, IDC analyst Charles Kolodgy appeared to give his blessing to the proposed merger.

“Reactive security drives a maddening environment of ad hoc and emergency updates to signatures, patches and security policies. However, organizations realize that proactive security measures are the best way to maintain a consistent level of security risk management.” Kolodgy writes. “This emphasis on fixing problems before they occur will create a significant market for integrated security policy and remediation management. A proactive stance will also reduce security risk across the enterprise. PatchLink’s acquisition of SecureWave provides solutions to reduce risk.”