Sygate CEO Escreveu:
Dear Sygate Customers and Partners,
On August 16th, 2005, the Sygate board of directors approved the signing of an agreement for Sygate to be acquired by Symantec Corporation, the global leader in information security and availability. As many of you many know, the new Symantec is now the fourth largest software company in the world, with close to $5 Billion in annual revenue, and an outstanding reputation for data availability and security solutions. In the tradition already established by Sygate, it will be our mission to provide you, our customers and partners, with even more relentless innovation, more resources to ensure great execution, and the highest delivery standards. We are delighted to become an important part of the Symantec team.
The Sygate and Symantec relationship is a natural and makes great sense for both companies; in fact, one analyst suggested that it is one of the most elegant combinations he has ever seen. Combining Sygate’s expertise in real-time endpoint protection and compliance, with Symantec’s leadership in antivirus and client security, allows us to offer you an even more comprehensive solution for both managed and unmanaged endpoints. Likewise, our entrepreneurial spirit and “can do” attitude, our devotion to customer satisfaction, and our technical and thought leadership, will help Symantec become the lead innovator and first major vendor to offer real-time endpoint compliance and network access control capability regardless of network access method. Leveraging the strengths of both companies will provide value and benefits that we believe cannot be matched by our competitors.
We expect the acquisition to close soon after the companies receive the required regulatory approvals. In an effort to provide you with contractual continuity, Sygate and Symantec have reached an understanding that all current contracts in force at the time of close will be assumed “as is” by Symantec. The management teams at both companies will work on the integration and transition plans through the close. I recognize that a change like this can create uncertainty, and, during this period, I will continue to provide you with as much information as possible so that you have confidence in the process and understand the roadmap. Our intention is to protect your investment, and leverage the best of both companies to provide you with even more value over time.
Symantec has solid experience in making acquisitions work: an impressive 60 percent of its current employees were brought on board through acquisitions. During the process of getting to know the wonderful folks at Symantec, it became very clear that they highly value Sygate’s reputation, talent (our people!) and innovative products. As many of you know, this expertise came from the well learned practice of frequently polling our customers for feedback and input on our roadmap. With this move, we have a chance to share and extend your expertise and knowledge to make a difference, and to have an even larger impact in the industry.
For the time being, our primary goals are to remain focused on what we do best – protecting our customers, working closely with our partners, giving great value for money and providing outstanding service. We will stay focused on these goals, and we will continue to work relentlessly to help you be successful in securing your organization.
What a wonderful outcome for all of us. I appreciate the trust that you’ve given us in the past; you, our customers and partners, have provided more “value add” to our company than you can probably imagine. Your efforts to help us create great solutions have opened many doors. The future looks very bright indeed for the customers and partners of Sygate and Symantec.
Onward and upward!
John De Santis
President & CEO
Sygate Technologies, Inc.
Accountability-Integrity-Teamwork
Symantec Escreveu: Leading Endpoint Compliance Technology to Extend Symantec’s Security Leadership
CUPERTINO, Calif. - August 16, 2005 - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Sygate Technologies, a technology leader in endpoint compliance solutions. Sygate’s technology will complement Symantec’s presence on the endpoint to create a holistic solution to address the security, compliance, and remediation requirements of today’s large enterprises. The acquisition is expected to close shortly after receiving customary regulatory approvals.
"Securing the ‘endpoints’ of a corporate network is a challenge that affects all enterprises," said Chris Christiansen, vice president of security products and services, IDC. "Companies are looking for integrated offerings that can both protect the network and ensure that endpoints are compliant with security policies. This acquisition will give customers a complete endpoint compliance solution while helping to reduce complexity and cost."
Endpoint compliance solutions help enterprise organizations enforce security by guaranteeing that all devices connected to a network – desktops, laptops, servers, and mobile devices – are running the appropriate security solutions, are configured correctly, and possess up-to-date patches. Symantec will now be able to help businesses enforce business policies and automate security practices to regain control of network security, reduce costs, and ensure compliance across the organization.
“It is critical to have an endpoint compliance solution that will allow companies to leverage their existing IT infrastructure to control the myriad devices connecting to the network,” said Enrique Salem, senior vice president, Security Products and Solutions at Symantec. “A recognized leader in endpoint compliance, Sygate provides the first universal network access control system designed to protect the entire enterprise network – from mobile devices to servers to unmanaged devices. The fact that their technology is built on industry standards means that companies don’t have to implement expensive infrastructure changes to deploy this solution.”
For more than five years, enterprise customers have turned to Sygate to automate the process of discovering endpoints, determining their compliance with security policies, enforcing network access control, remediating noncompliant systems, and then continuously monitoring for compliance. The Sygate Universal Network Access Control system enables enterprises to extend the protections of network access control to every type of network access (VPN, wireless, wired switch, DHCP, and home networks) and on all endpoints (desktops, laptops, servers, guest systems, and embedded devices) and allows them to define how secure an endpoint must be before it can access specific network resources, even when users take their mobile devices off the corporate network.
“Thanks to the support of our customers, employees, investors, partners, and shareholders, Sygate has helped some of the largest, most complex enterprises to secure their infrastructures and eliminate disruptions to business-critical computer systems,” said John DeSantis, president and CEO of Sygate Technologies. “Combining our entrepreneurial spirit and expertise in endpoint compliance with Symantec’s outstanding resources, corporate culture and market leadership in client security will allow us to offer customers the most comprehensive solution for both managed and unmanaged endpoints.”
Upon close of the deal, Symantec AntiVirus and Symantec Client Security customers will be able to license and deploy Sygate's Network Access Control (SNAC) agent to provide endpoint compliance on top of the protection they already receive. Symantec will integrate its remediation capabilities like LiveUpdate and LiveState Patch Manager and its data availability solutions into a more robust endpoint compliance solution.
Protecting enterprise networks and application data from exposure by user access from unmanaged devices like business center kiosks has also proven to be a unique challenge for enterprises. Sygate On-Demand Agent (SODA) provides a small lightweight agent that can be downloaded via SSL and portal connections. This agent ensures that endpoints that are not company-owned or managed are in compliance with corporate security policies and that the transaction data itself is secure.
In addition to providing network access control and key on-demand security technology, Sygate also provides award-winning endpoint protection capability. Recently announced Sygate Enterprise Solution (SEP) 5.0 provides broad protection and control in a single agent and under simplified management. Symantec expects to leverage and integrate these technologies with its existing endpoint protection products. Until that integration occurs, SEP 5.0 will be offered alongside Symantec's other endpoint security solutions.
About Sygate Technologies, Inc.
Sygate is the market-leader in network access control solutions for the large enterprise. Through intelligent policy enforcement, its solution ensures “Compliance on Contact,” protecting computers, data and networks from misuse, malicious access and misconfiguration. Using Sygate solutions, the world’s largest organizations protect their networks, enforce business policies, and automate security practices to regain control of network security, reduce costs, and ensure compliance across the organization. Partnerships with industry leaders, including Alcatel, Aruba, Aventail, Cisco, Enterasys, Extreme Networks, Hewlett Packard, iPass, Juniper Networks, Microsoft and Nortel enable Sygate’s technology to operate seamlessly across multiple platforms and applications. Sygate Technologies is headquartered in Fremont, California. For more information, please visit www.sygate.com
About Symantec
Symantec is the world leader in providing solutions to help individuals and enterprises assure the security, availability, and integrity of their information. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has operations in more than 40 countries. More information is available at www.symantec.com.
Bem, vamos esperar que a Symantec faça o mesmo que fez com o Partition Magic, e não meta o bedelho na Sygate Personall Firewall.
