Microsoft Acquires Sybari Software

Sybari Software, a small privately held company that specializes in antivirus and antispam software for messaging and collaboration servers, will be acquired by Microsoft. Among other assets, Microsoft will get access to Sybari technology that lets multiple antivirus engines operate simultaneously—a potentially useful capability that could find its way into the next version of Windows.

Sybari had filed for an initial public offering with an estimated value of about US$61.6 million, and Microsoft disclosed no specifics about the financial terms of the acquisition or how and when it would bring Microsoft-branded versions of Sybari’s products to market.

Why Sybari?

Sybari is the second antivirus company Microsoft has acquired. In June 2003 Microsoft acquired the antivirus technologies of GeCAD, a small Romanian antivirus company. Since the acquisition of GeCAD, Microsoft’s customers have expected it to announce the release of a Microsoft-branded antivirus product, a strategy confirmed by Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chief software architect, in his keynote address at the RSA Conference on security in Feb. 2005. However, Gates did not share any details or roadmap for that product.