Check Point buys Sourcefire for $225M

Check Point Software Technologies has purchased Sourcefire, for $225 million, officials from both companies announced last week.

The deal, announced Oct. 6, will enhance the internal security protections of Check Point’s perimeter, internal, Web and endpoint security products, said Andrew Singer, Check Point’s director of market intelligence.

Check Point will add the software-based intelligence gained from Sourcefire’s intrusion-prevention and Real-time Network Awareness (RNA) product lines, and the human-based intelligence from the tens of thousands of users of Snort, Sourcefire’s open-source network intrusion-detection system, Singer said.

Check Point eventually wants to integrate all Sourcefire products into its NGX Unified Security Architecture, Singer said.

The two companies entered negotiations in July and expected to finalize the acquisition by the beginning of 2006, said Michele Perry, Sourcefire’s chief marketing officer.

Check Point will continue to offer all Sourcefire products and services, although the company has yet to decide whether to keep the Sourcefire name, Perry said.

Check Point does not expect to lay off any Sourcefire employees or close any of the company’s offices, Perry said.

“Part of this acquisition is for the people,” Singer said, because they have “demonstrated tremendous capability to produce leading solutions.”