Altiris, BMC, Novell Acquire Security, Compliance

Altiris , BMC Software and Novell each moved to acquire a software vendor, reinforcing their
commitment to systems management.

Altiris agreed to acquire threat management outfit Pedestal Software for
$65 million in cash; BMC purchased Web single sign-on specialist OpenNetwork
for $18 million in cash; and Novell agreed to buy Tally Systems to boost its
ability to manage software assets.

Taken together, the three acquisitions point to a surge in demand for
management software, a multi-billion-dollar industry headlined by mainstays,
such as IBM , CA and HP . Corporations are requesting various types of such
software to help them comply with stringent records retention mandates, such
as the Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC 17a-4 and HIPAA.

Altiris said in a statement it will use Pedestal’s SecurityExpressions suite
to set up and enforce security policies for all of the computers running on
a network.

Combined with Altiris Patch Management software for network quarantine and
recovery, SecurityExpressions will help customers plug vulnerabilities in
desktops and servers that run Windows, Unix and Linux operating systems.

Revenue from the transaction is expected to be in the range of $17 million to $18 million in 2005.

If it succeeds in closing the deal by the end of the month, Altiris will
begin integrating the Pedestal products with Altiris systems management
software, which will eventually fall under the heading of Altiris Security
Management Suite for desktops and servers.

Altiris’ last acquisition was a January purchase
of application monitoring company Tonic Software in January.

Altiris competitor BMC made its own security software play in snapping up
Privately held OpenNetwork, a Clearwater, Fla., provider of single sign-on
software for the Internet with 70 customers in financial services,
telecommunications and other industries.

For BMC, the purchase fills an important hole in the company’s security
management portfolio. OpenNetwork’s products are compatible with both Java
and .NET and allow customers to access applications from disparate locations
through a Web browser. Such federated identity management tools can enable
Web services for e-commerce.

BMC already offered single sign-on software for enterprises, along with
identity management software for user provisioning, directory content
management and audit and compliance management. Adding more broad single
sign-on gives the company a new dimension and helps it better compete with
management software rivals IBM, CA and HP.

Roughly 40 OpenNetwork employees will join BMC Software’s identity
management business unit.

In acquisition news with compliance implications, Novell agreed to acquire Tally
Systems for an undisclosed sum. Novell will use the Lebanon, N.H.,
company’s software for discovery and inventory and software usage and trend
analysis to fortify its ZENworks systems management portfolio.

Novell said in a statement that Tally’s suite will help ZENworks track
information and assets in servers, desktops and laptops. Tally’s software
will also help enterprises be compliant with software licenses and
government regulations.

Novell, which earlier this week made a slew of product announcements at its annual BrainShare conference in Salt Lake City, expects to close the transaction by the middle of April.