The security software division of chipmaker giant Intel Corp, McAfee, announce plans to purchase network firewall software developer Stonesoft Oyj of Finland. The purchase is reportedly worth US$389 million in cash.
The purchase price is a 128% premium to the company's stock market value at close of trading last Friday.
Despite the current slump in PC industry sales, especially with security software, this purchase is seen as a good counter point to Microsoft initiatives. MS's Windows 8 had free anti-virus software included when it was launched last October 2012.
The bid for the shares of Stonesoft was at Eur4.50 per share. The closing price last Friday was at Eur1.97 per share.
The purchase allows McAfee to grow in the network firewall and evasion prevention market as it competes with Symantec Corp. Intel purchased McAfee in 2011 for a price tag of US$7.7 billion.
Stonesoft was established back in 1990 and is just rising from a period of asset shedding and scaling back of operations in the past decade due to increased competition.
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