Microsoft Corp. Tuesday completed its acquisition of antivirus software vendor Sybari Software Inc. with the decision to continue selling Sybari's products on a stand-alone basis.
Microsoft will offer a host of Sybari products for Windows, including Antigen for
Microsoft Exchange, Antigen for Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and Windows
SharePoint Services, Antigen for Instant Messaging and Antigen for SMTP (Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol) Gateways.
At the same time, however, Microsoft will discontinue selling versions of Antigen for
Lotus Domino running on Unix and Linux platforms, though the vendor will continue to
support current users of those versions.
Amy Roberts, director of product management for Microsoft's security business and
technology unit, called the move a "business decision" since only a "very, very small
percentage" of Sybari software is sold for these operating systems. She added that
Microsoft will continue to sell Antigen products for Lotus Domino running on Windows,
easing concerns that Sybari's software will become an Exchange-only product.
Though Microsoft purchased Sybari primarily as a way to protect users of Exchange,
SharePoint portal and SharePoint services from viruses and spam, Microsoft is mulling
the possibility that other Sybari software properties might be used across other
Microsoft products, Roberts said.
In addition to antivirus and antispam software, Sybari also offers Enterprise
Management, software that allows administrators to manage and monitor multiple Sybari
technologies running in a system.
Microsoft previously purchased antivirus vendor GeCAD Software Srl of Bucharest,
Romania, in June 2003, and plans to leverage GeCAD's antivirus scanning engine for
use with Antigen products. Sybari offers customers a choice of third-party scanning
engines rather than providing its own.
In addition to GeCAD, Microsoft also will continue to offer third-party scanning
engines, such as those from Sophos PLC and Computer Associates International Inc.,
with Sybari software, Roberts said.