IBM announces its acquisition of web application security and compliance testing software company Watchfire, in its plan to combine the Watchfire technology with its existing Rational software products.
“Watchfire is a recognised industry leader in the security and compliance market that will further strengthen our ability to help customers mitigate risk by integrating security, quality testing and compliance testing requirements early in the software development process,†IBM Rational Software general manager Danny Sabbah said.
Watchfire, known for its web application security tool AppScan, was founded in 1996 and currently has 189 employees. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it was said that Watchfire will continue to operate as an independent business unit. The acquisition will close in the third quarter of 2007.
This acquisition is the latest among security-related acquisitions by some of the leading IT companies such as Microsoft, Google and Cisco among others. Seemingly, these firms have been buying out security companies in response to malicious malware attacks that are proliferating the web today.
Originally posted on June 7, 2007 @ 6:38 am