IBM to Buy ISS for $1.3 Billion

gerald626 writes "IBM announced today that they have formed an agreement to purchase ISS for 1.3 billion dollars." From the article: " The all-cash transaction of about $28 per share is meant to bolster IBM's ability to deliver security services to corporations, the company said. ISS builds network protection products and services, including intrusion detection and monitoring tools. IBM said it intends to use ISS's expertise and software to provide more robust security-related services to its corporate customers."

Re:Nice headline

[SillyNickName4me]

Hmm.. back when I used to work there it was usually "I've Been Moved", refering to the yearly seemingly random redistribution of people throughout the company that was policy at the time.

Finally! A commercial reason for space habitats!

[alienmole]

You may have hit on something here -- if all the world's megacorps decided they needed jurisdiction-free headquarters in space, the problem of humanity being stuck on planet Earth would be solved! Before this decade is out, we could have a space-based population consisting of hundreds of thousands of CxOs, lawyers, accountants, and their support staff.

Perhaps we've been looking in all the wrong places for the Right Stuff? The future of space is... cubicles!

Re:Pfffft!

[irregular_hero]

I love responding to ISS people! I really do!

I didn't say that the companies I mentioned were on the bleeding edge, just that they're making serious inroads against ISS. Hell, all Cisco has to do is sneeze together an IPS solution and lots of companies would buy it based solely on the label and the fact that it fits into their Catalyst (and I would argue that they did exactly that with their current product lines). Last time I checked, wasn't Cisco now selling more IDS/IPS gear than anyone else in terms of revenue? Oh, yeah, this IS an economy of scale, isn't it?

Oh yeah, the XP firewall... wow, that was really a direct shot in the heart to ISS. Considering the huge number of enterprises currently running Vista, I can see how you might conclude there is no longer a market for 3rd-party desktop security agents.

I have no love for the stuff Microsoft gives us. I despise the build-in strategy they like to force on the marketplace. But it's FREE. It's bundled with the damn product we have to run anyway. It's totally FREE. And we sure as hell will go Vista when it comes because most of our backend systems will require it and our user systems will likely rely on Vista-integrated features. And then there's that FREE thing again. Good luck on that one, most companies like to get handouts because it makes you look good on the balance sheet -- and if it doesn't work, then you can blame Microsoft, which everyone does anyway, AND which never has any effect because there's really no other way you can go if you saddled yourself to that horse.

I could spend time explaining the performance advantages that Proventia brought to the table, or the fact that tech support calls per appliance sold took a drastic nosedive, or that a *majority* of customers have moved to Proventia, but you're clearly either a competitor or otherwise motivated by some negative interaction you had with the company, so I'll let it slide.

How in the hell did you figure out that I've had negative interaction with ISS? Good call! You're right that I have -- and that has indeed colored my view of the company, of which I have some pretty strong opinions. And those opinions of the company are based on the people, not the product -- I'm aware that the Proventias continue to improve. But that's hardly my fault, I've only been dealing with ISS as a customer since 1994 or so. Definitely not long enough to develop any empirical data to support my assertions that they're not customer-friendly. I take all of it back.

I am, after all, naive about how "a company" works -- it's definitely not about making customers happy AND making money. It's only about making money, isn't it? And as long as we're making money, the customers will stay with us! That's the ticket!

Mike Lynn resigned. To this day he doesn't have much bad to say about ISS the company, but does hold a handful of employees responsible for the situation that ensued.

Uh huh. Glad to see he's got class. He still left a company because of a disagreement that ISS exacerbated by refusing to defend him. I say "fired". And "bamboozled". And "removed". And "backhanded". And "sirloin". Whatever. He's got class where ISS refused to have any.

I trust IBM did it's homework a lot more thoroughly that you before performing this acquisition. And it's a good thing, since your version of homework is false accusations, half-truths and conjecture.

Yeah, I guess being a customer of a company gives you no insight to be able to judge how poorly a company performs for its customers. And now that you mention it, as I hadn't to this point actually engaged in false accusations, half-truths, and conjecture, I might as well.

False accusation: I find ISS's management to be not at all a big bunch of baboons with excessively large penchants for flinging shit in their customers' faces.

Half-truths: I find ISS's management to be a big bunch of baboons with excessively large penchants for flinging shit in their customers' faces.

Conjecture: IBM is likely to find itself up to its armpits in customers with shitty faces.

Ciao!

Now its their turn...

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to work for a small australian startup called vCIS, which did virus detection via virtualization. ISS bought the company and in less than a year sacked everyone and closed it down.

I wonder if now it is ISS's turn at the hands of IBM?