McAfee to buy Finland rival Stonesoft Oyj for $389 mn

Intel Corp's security-software subsidiary McAfee, today said that it will buy Finland's firewall protection products provider Stonesoft Oyj, for $389 million in cash in order to expand its product offering.

McAfee will pay €4.50 ($5.90) a share, a 128 per cent premium to the Stonesoft's Friday closing price of €1.97.

Ilkka Hiidenheimo, CEO of Stonesoft, chairman Hannu Turunen and Timo Syrjaelae, a board member, who together hold 34.7 per cent of the company's stock, have agreed to tender their shares to the offer.

Helsinki-based Stonesoft makes next-generation network firewall products, and has more than 6,500 customers across the world.

McAfee said that the acquisition will help it grow its network security business by delivering the industry's most complete network security solution with three leading platforms: McAfee's IPS Network Security Platform, McAfee's Firewall Enterprise for the high assurance market segment, and Stonesoft's next-generation firewall.

''The combination of the two companies allows Stonesoft to benefit from McAfee's global presence and sales organization of over 2,200 employees, best-in-class threat research and technology synergies'' said Hiidenheimo. ''Combined, we believe we can offer our customers a world-class product portfolio with world-class support – all backed by Intel.''

''With the pending addition of Stonesoft's products and services, McAfee is making a significant investment in next-generation firewall technology. These solutions anticipate emerging customer needs in a continually evolving threat landscape,'' said Michael DeCesare, McAfee president.

''Stonesoft is a leading innovator in this important market segment. We plan to integrate Stonesoft's offerings with other McAfee products to realise the power of McAfee's security connected strategy,'' he added.