McAfee Bids £250m For Firewall Innovator Stonesoft

McAfee has made a conditional tender to buy Finnish network firewall company Stonesoft for $389 million (£250m) in cash and – if completed – is intended to boost McAfee’s channel offerings.

This has been seen as a strategic move for Intel’s McAfee to allow it to move into the large corporation and governmental security markets. One of Stonesoft’s specialisms is discovery of advanced evasion techniques (AETs) which use multiple detection avoidance methods in a network attack.

Combined defence

McAfee says  its rationale for the acquisition as being based on Stonesoft’s reputation as a leading innovator in the next-generation firewall segment. Gartner positioned the company as “visionary” in its 2013 Network Security Firewall Magic Quadrant.

With the acquisition, McAfee said it expects to grow its network security business based on three platforms: IPS Network Security, Firewall Enterprise for the high assurance market segment, and Stonesoft’s next-generation firewall.

Michael DeCesare, McAfee’s president, said, “With the pending addition of Stonesoft’s products and services, McAfee is making a significant investment in next-generation firewall technology. These solutions anticipate emerging customer needs in a continually evolving threat landscape.

“We plan to integrate Stonesoft’s offerings with other McAfee products to realise the power of McAfee’s Security Connected strategy,” he explained.

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