eWeek has an interesting piece about potential acquisition targets for this year. Brian Prince talks about code testing tools as being on the block for 08. I could not agree more. I find it interesting the amount of marketing spin that has been devoted to data loss prevention or DLP and the lack of attention that has been paid to tackling the root of the problem.
From eWeek:
The past year saw two major acquisitions related to application security testing: Hewlett-Packard’s purchase of SPI Dynamics and IBM’s acquisition of Watchfire. The acquisitions, coupled with an increase in the number of providers offering vulnerability assessments, are indicators of a growing emphasis on increasing security in the development process.
One driver behind any acquisitions in the space may simply be competition. Ironically, though, the number of acquisitions that have already taken place may mean there are fewer on the table for 2008, Gartner analyst John Pescatore said. Still, some of the larger vendors, like Fortify Software, are likely to be targets of companies that compete with IBM and HP in the software development space, he said.
Another company that folks should keep an eye on is Weld Pond’s Chris Wysopal’s code analysis/application security venture. Veracode is a company that I can see being a target of acquisition. I’m not sure how much of the company is tied up in Symantec financing. Still, a sound venture.
[tags]Code Testing, Secure Code, Application Security, M&A[/tags]