Gartner’s latest ‘magic quadrant’ 2006 report on “E-mail Security Boundary” rates the following vendors in the top leaders/visionaries quadrant:
Other leaders are:
Source: Garner, 2006
Mergers and acquisitions in the e-mail security space are expected to peak during the next 12 months, as technology players scramble to position themselves in the middle of the big business of message security.
Most recently, Cisco Systems in January announced it has agreed to acquire IronPort Systems, an anti-spam and spyware protection services company, for $830.0 million in cash and stock.
The networking equipment company said the acquisition is a natural extension of its existing security products, which include threat mitigation, confidential communications, management and policy control.
In fact, some observers say the major consolidation in the space is over.
“It’s pretty much done,” said Peter Firstbrook, research director at technology researcher Gartner Inc. However, he speculated CA might be interested in doing a deal. “They don’t have anything is this area,” he said, adding that IBM Corp. might enter the space, too, but has not yet shown any interest.
Gartner projected that mergers and acquisitions in the e-mail security industry will reach their zenith in the next 12 months.
“The more consolidation and the more people using the `good’ software, the better it is for marketers,” Firstbrook said. Firstbrook put together Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Email Security in September, ranking Cisco, MessageLabs, Microsoft, Postini, Secure Computing Corp. and Symantec Corp. in his “leaders quadrant.”
Some of the most attractive acquisition targets, according to some industry watchers, are MessageLabs, MX Logic and Postini.
Mullen, who heads a group called the EMail Experience Council, predicted that the major e-mail security vendors will get very cozy over the next 12 months to solve the security issues, and that in turn will spur further deal activity.
Source: B2B Online
On 4 January 2007, Cisco announced a definitive agreement to acquire IronPort Systems, a provider of enterprise messaging security products.
The IronPort acquisition will allow Cisco to move into the fast-growing e-mail security market, which is currently valued at approximately $850 million and growing at a rate of approximately 40% annually. The key technology value that Cisco will receive is a strategic foundation on which to begin building a security infrastructure for unified communications, including e-mail.
Gartner Analysis : The consolidation in the e-mail security market is now almost complete. Other vendors will find it difficult to compete with industry leaders Cisco, Microsoft and Symantec in the enterprise market. IBM and (potentially) Juniper Networks are the only other major vendors that have a strategic interest in this market, though BorderWare and Proofpoint remain as respected independent players. Gartner believes the two remaining service providers, MessageLabs and Postini, will likely be acquired by telecom providers in their respective markets.
Extracted from Gartner - IronPort Buy Will Make Cisco a Major E-Mail Security Player
In October, 63 billion junk messages were sent daily, on average, compared with 31 billion a year ago, according to data from IronPort Systems. Another anti-spam specialist, MessageLabs, reports that 88.7 percent of all e-mail sent in October was unsolicited. That percentage is expected to rise to nearly 90 percent in November and December.
That could add up to a huge pile of unwanted e-mail. IronPort predicts that the number of spam messages will average 78 billion a day in December, up from 38 billion last year.
Internet service providers and anti-spam companies are working hard to fight this onslaught of spam. But it’s a game of cat-and-mouse, and right now, the spammers are slipping away, experts said. “The anti-spam vendors are struggling,” said Natalie Lambert, an analyst at Forrester Research. “The best vendors are able to stop about 98 percent of spam.” That still leaves 2 percent that gets through, which is a lot with the current, increasing spam levels, she added.
Source : c | net news
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