Big blue softie
IBM seems to be taking part in a spot of Cyber Monday shopping, snapping up Massachusetts-based database security firm, Guardium, to add to its lucrative software portfolio.
An Israeli business news site, The Marker, reported the deal on Sunday, saying Big Blue had coughed up some $225 million for Guardium, but although IBM has since confirmed the acquisition, it refuses to say how much it paid.
Guardium, whose software is mainly used by companies trying to protect their data from unauthorised access or changes, is a subsidiary of Log-On Software and was founded in 2002.
Even without being plucked up by IBM, the firm was already feeling rather secure, having managed to raise an impressive $21 million in funding from Cisco, Cedar Fund, Ascent Venture Partners, Stage One Ventures, Veritas Venture Partners and more.
The firm's technology - already being used by bigwigs like Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Sun Microsystems and installed in over 450 data centres globally -works by finding patterns and anomalies in data access and usage, raising an alert if it comes across any suspicious usage.
General manager of IBM's Information Management, Arvind Krishna, said on Monday that the purchase was "another significant step," in IBM's "abilities to help clients govern and monitor their data, and ultimately make their information more secure throughout its life-cycle."
