Symantec Corporation surprised many last week when it announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Altiris, Inc., a leading provider of IT management software that enables businesses to easily manage and service network-based endpoints, from mobile devices, laptops, and desktops to servers and storage assets. Under the terms of the agreement, Altiris stockholders will receive $33 per share of A Symantec Corporation surprised many last week when it announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Altiris, Inc., a leading provider of IT management software that enables businesses to easily manage and service network-based endpoints, from mobile devices, laptops, and desktops to servers and storage assets. Under the terms of the agreement, Altiris stockholders will receive $33 per share of Altiris common stock in cash, resulting in a transaction value of approximately $830 million net-of-cash-acquired. The deal is expected to close in the second calendar quarter of 2007 and would represent Symantec’s largest acquisition since its controversial announcement to acquire storage-software company, Veritas, for $13.5 billion back in December of 2004. The deal has many industry analysts and solution providers watching closely. Most agree, the acquisition seems to have many synergies and makes a lot of sense at the product offering level, but what is being questioned is the dollar amount being offered and more importantly – the timing. Only a week earlier, Symantec announced plans to slash $200 million in operating costs. And so analysts question whether acquiring more technologies in different areas makes sense right now for Symantec or if they should instead focus on getting their own house in order. Symantec executives argue that they are indeed doing what needs to be done in order to put their house in order. The company has said that the deal is about focusing their business. On one side of the income statement is cost, but on the other side is revenue. And right now, Altiris seems to be in a pretty good place as it expects to hit $200 million in sales for its 2006 fiscal year which is up from 2005’s total of $188 million. With Microsoft declaring that security is going to be one of its next traveled frontiers, it only makes sense that Symantec strikes back at Microsoft in the IT asset management space. Symantec’s acquisition of Altiris should bolster its position and leverage its strengths on the enterprise endpoint. Where Symantec helps businesses protect their endpoints with security, compliance and backup and recovery solutions, Altiris complements it by helping businesses manage their endpoints and by helping to configure their assets. And virtualization should be expected to play a larger role at Symantec as well. With the acquisition comes an innovative software virtualization technology, Software Virtualization Solution, which may prove critical to providing faster, simpler and more manageable deployments of PC applications. The technology will not only help to reduce support costs and streamline software operations, but it will allow Symantec to have an offering that will help it to counter Microsoft’s SoftGrid solution which it recently acquired from Softricity. “The most secure endpoint is a well-managed endpoint. The best protection must be complemented by the ability to remediate and address vulnerabilities that could be exploited,” said John W. Thompson, chairman and chief executive officer, Symantec. “By combining the endpoint management solutions from Altiris with the security expertise from Symantec, we believe we can offer customers a more comprehensive solution to protect and manage the millions of connected devices that make up the fabric of today’s global IT infrastructure.”“Today’s IT departments are faced with constant pressures to manage spiraling IT complexity at the lowest possible cost. We have made it our goal to help businesses reduce the cost and complexity of IT, improve system and data security, and better align IT service with corporate objectives,” said Greg Butterfield, president and chief executive officer, Altiris. “By combining our software solutions, services, and channel distribution strengths, Symantec and Altiris can offer our customers the ‘total package’ in endpoint management.”The product roadmap is still being worked out and won’t appear until the second quarter when the deal is expected to close. But Butterfield doesn’t anticipate any changes in his management makeup or his company’s 1,000-strong work force. He expects that his existing team will remain in place, citing that Symantec recognizes the success that Altiris has earned and that they wouldn’t want to shake that up. Software Development