Check Point buys Sourcefire
$225m for intrusion prevention company.
By Ellen Messmer, Network World | Network World US | Published: 11:16, 07 October 2005
Check Point has bought intrusion prevention software company Sourcefire for $225 million (£127m).
Privately-held Sourcefire was founded in 2001 to commercialise the open-source intrusion-detection system (IDS) software but has yet to turn a profit, Checkpoint Chairman and CEO Gil Shwed said. "It's getting profitable," Schwed assured analysts.
Check Point will keep the company's Snort technology open, Schwed said, so that it could be used by other companies and enterprises. But he was vague about an exact roadmap for the future. He hinted about product integration.
Check Point was very impressed with Sourcefire's technologies, in particular the Defense Center event-management console and the Real-time Network Awareness sensor for analysing security threats associated with network traffic flows, Schwed explained.
Sourcefire has about 140 employees. There are "current plans" for layoffs.
