Check Point Thursday announced its intent to acquire Sourcefire for US$225 million, with the deal expected to close early next year.
Privately-held Sourcefire, founded by Martin Roesch in 2001 to commercialize the open-source intrusion-detection system (IDS) software he created and fostered through communal input, has yet to turn a profit, Checkpoint Chairman and CEO Gil Shwed said. "It's getting profitable," Schwed informed Wall Street financial analysts pressing for detail during a conference call this morning between Check Point and Sourcefire executives.
Schwed said Check Point does plan to "keep the Snort technology open" so that it could be used by other companies and enterprises.
Immediate plans call for continuing to market and support the current line of Check Point and Sourcefire products. But Shwed was vague about an exact product roadmap for the future, though he hinted there would likely be product integration.
He said Check Point was very impressed with Sourcefire's technologies, in particular the Defense Center event-management console and the Real-time Network Awareness sensor for analyzing security threats associated with network traffic flows. Network World last year described how RNA works in the product review: "Sourcefire's RNA provides instant visibility into your network".
Sourcefire has about 140 employees and Sourcefire CEO Wayne Jackson said under current plans, it's expected that Martin Roesch and other employees would join Check Point while keeping the Columbia, Md. headquarters for Sourcefire open.
