Symantec taps Intel for antivirus
The utility software maker buys Intel's antivirus business and licenses its technology, which it will combine with its own antivirus technology.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Symantec said its Norton AntiVirus engine technology will be integrated into a new antivirus product that Intel has had under development for most of this year. The product will be fully integrated with Intel LANDesk Management Suite and will be launched as a Norton AntiVirus product later this year.
Shares of Symantec were up 6.94 percent to 14.4375 on news of the deal. The stock has traded as high as 32.63 and as low as 12.75 during the past 52 weeks.
As part of the agreement, Symantec will support Intel's 18,000 registered antivirus customers and Intel will recommend Norton AntiVirus to its corporate customers worldwide as the antivirus solution of choice. Intel also will market the Norton AntiVirus product line through its extensive reseller channel worldwide.
"For nearly seven years, LANDesk Virus Protect has been the leader in providing the robust systems management capabilities that businesses need in their antivirus solution," Ed Ekstrom, vice president of Intel's New Business Group, said in a statement. "By licensing these technologies to Symantec, we can focus entirely on our core competency--systems management leadership--while continuing to provide our customers with a world-class antivirus solution."
Symantec's relationship with Intel comes on the heels of its alliances with IBM, Entrust Technologies, and Platinum technology.
Symantec will use the technology it has licensed from Intel to help build the Digital Immune System that Symantec is developing with IBM. The Digital Immune System combines Symantec's products with neural network technology from IBM to provide corporate customers with an automated environment to try to keep their systems up and running.
"Integrating Intel LANDesk management technologies provides Norton AntiVirus customers with the best management solutions available and gives them the confidence they have the most manageable and flexible solution to fit within their existing network management architecture," Gordon Eubanks, Symantec's president and chief executive, said in a statement.
The relationship with Intel will be ongoing, the firms said.
Symantec has been hurt recently by a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by rival CyberMedia. Just a few weeks ago, Symantec's stock fell as much as 15 percent after it projected that it could lose up to $5 million in revenues in the September quarter as a result of complying with the terms of a temporary restraining order issued in the suit.
Intel is an investor in CNET: The Computer Network, publisher of News.com.