Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition (NIS+) was released to public beta testing last week. Anyone can download it at -secure.symantec.com/public_beta/ and use it during the beta test period, which ends June 1. According to Symantec, the addition of spyware protection is the only significant change from the previous NIS 2005. Because it's beta, we didn't run NIS+ through our full antispyware test, but we did put it through a fairly taxing ringer, pitting it against Webroot's Spy Sweeper 3.5, our current Editors' Choice for standalone antispyware.
Setup took just 11 minutes--including a 2-minute preinstall scan--in our tests. The main reason for the speedy setup was that PC-cillin didn't run a postinstallation scan, which we ran manually. (Most antivirus programs also do a full-system scan immediately following installation, and we wish PC-cillin did also.) Including the manual scan, setup time totaled 30 minutes, still much shorter than with F-Secure Internet Security 2005 or Norton AntiVirus 2005, each of which took more than an hour to install. McAfee VirusScan 9.0 installs without prescanning your system and took only 5 minutes in our tests.
FULL Symantec Norton Windoctor 2005
Symantec is a major player in the information security industry, reporting revenues of US$2.6 billion in fiscal year 2005,6 and maintaining a portfolio of products that spans most segments of the market. Sharing the spotlight with McAfee, Symantec has been a leading force in the anti-virus market since the early 1990s. Symantec successfully addressed strategic requirements outlined in the Outsourcing Technology Development section, by developing a complementary asset essential to maintaining a leading position in this industry: merger and acquisition (M&A) capabilities. Since 1990, the company has made 39 acquisitions, 17 of which occurred between 2000 and 2005. (For details regarding this M&A activity, please see Appendix D, Symantec's Acquisition History.) Mark W. Bailey, a Vice President of business development at Symantec in 1990s, justified the company's reliance on acquisitions to help fuel its product development funnel by pointing out that acquisitions "generate instant revenues against which to fund expenses. . Instead of investing for 12 to 18 months in the internal development of a product, during which time the market window may have closed without providing revenues to offset the development expenses, a merger offers the opportunity for a neutral to positive impact on earnings within a brief period, if not immediately."7 John Thompson, Symantec's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), confirmed that the company uses acquisitions to expand its market presence, while devoting internal development resources to integrate products into unified suites. He further explained, "We launched the first set of integrated security appliances that hit the market in the spring of 2002. Those were organically developed products, not products that came through acquisition."8 The flurry of Symantec's acquisitions between 2000 and 2005 has coincided with the broadening definition of end-point security: as incumbents are pressured to incorporate new and increasingly different technologies into their security suites at a faster rate than they can develop them internally, they must look outside the firm to develop technologies quickly enough to meet market demands. The diversification of end-point security requirements can be seen clearly via Symantec's post-2000 acquisitions, which included notable acquisitions outside Symantec's core technologies, including anti-spam functionality (Brightmail, TurnTide), and intrusion detection (Recourse). The merger with VERITAS, a provider of data management software, exemplifies and broadens this trend, as we discuss in the Symantec's Merger with VERITAS section. McAfee, Symantec's main competitor, has followed Symantec's pattern, acquiring, for example, anti-spam (DeerSoft), and intrusion-detection (IntruVert) companies in 2003. However, unlike Symantec, McAfee has not been able to develop a strong complementary asset of acquisition integration, the lack of which has resulted in a string of unsuccessful acquisitions. McAfee's poor acquisition strategy has hurt its performance in the endpoint security sector; because the company was not able to develop the type of complementary assets that the changing industry structure required, their competitiveness has suffered. Judging by Symantec's success at maintaining a leading role in the industry, we believe the company's strategy of outsourcing much of its new technology development has been an effective one. This is mainly due to the fact that success in the end-point security space is so dependent on the complementary assets of industry incumbents. Because brand, channel relationships, and support processes are so critical to sales in this sector, small explorer firms with new technologies are at a huge disadvantage. The proliferation of explorer firms adds to this market power inequality: there are many, many small companies developing new technologies to choose from, which provides Symantec with negotiating leverage. Given this competitive landscape, Symantec is likely to be able to exact favorable pricing from its acquisitions.
1 Norma Schroder, "Forecast: Security Software, Worldwide, 2005-2009 (Executive Summary)," Gartner. March 30, 2005. 2 Ellen Messmer, "Security Titans Intensify Rivalry," ComputerWorld. June 16, 2004 URL: ,4814,93869,00.html. 3 Zeus Kerravala, "Ubiquitous but Not Mature: Antivirus Needs to Grow Up," Yankee Group. April 12, 2005, URL: decision_note.jsp?ID=13023. 4 Peter Kuper & Brian Essex, "Symantec," Morgan Stanley Investment Report. January 5, 2005, p. 1. 5 Robert Lemos & Dawn Kawamoto, "Windows Anti-Spyware to Come Free of Charge," CNET News.com. February 15, 2005. URL: -7355_3-5577202.html. 6 Symantec Press Release, "Symantec Closes Fiscal Year 2005 with Record Revenue and Earnings." May 4, 2005. URL: =5643. 7 Mark W. Bailey, "New-Age Challenges To Acquirers in High Technology," Mergers & Acquisitions, Volume 29, Number 5. March/April 1995. URL: -20001231re_/ symantec.com/corporate/mergers/newage.html. 8 "Q&A with Symantec's John Thompson," BusinessWeek Online. June 21, 2004. URL: _25/ b3888620.htm. 9 Symantec Press Release, "Software Industry Leaders Symantec and VERITAS Software to Merge." December 16, 2004. URL: 10 Ellen Messmer & Deni Connor, "Symantec-Veritas Deal Blends Security, Storage Mgmt. Well, Analysts Say," Network World Fusion. December 16, 2004. URL: 11 Stephen Shankland, "Veritas CEO Defends Symantec Acquisition," CNET News.com. April 25, 2005. URL: -1014_3-5683677.html. 12 Juniper Data. "Consumer Willingness to Pay for Security and Entertainment VAS Bundles." January 26, 2005. URL: : quickchart/59/id=93243. 13 Peter Firstbrook, "The Changing Threat Landscape," Meta Group. March 24, 2005. URL: 2ff7e9595c
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