Microsoft rumored to be making an offer for Symantec

I don't know why ppl like to use dollar character so much in the Microsoft name. They are not a charity organization, they are there to make profit. Sure Bill Gates runs some charity stuff, but MS as company doesn't. It's like every other company. Why no one writes Ni$$san? Or €itröen? (car manufacturers came to my mind now). They aren't giving away cars for free either, yet ppl don't write their names like that.

Besides, it makes sense. No one would invest several hundred millions just to release the product entirely free later. It's like throwing money out the window unless you make a proper marketing move and divide product into free and payable. There are a lot of companies that work like that and that's their core income. And they seem to work just fine this way and still expanding.

What would be more interesting than all this is Windows OS in a very basic form released for free. For example Windows 7 Starter for free, all the higher editions payable. Now that would be something to talk about.

 

An increase in the share price of Symantec stock would equally benefit all shareholders, either within the company or within the general public.

Yes, I agree. Microsoft would be expecting to obtain a return on its investment, of course. The only condition, however, where this may not fully apply would be if the acquisition were purely defensive from a strategic perspective -- i.e., if the intent of Microsoft in acquiring Symantec is to prevent a competitor from acquiring the 'crown jewel' of the security industry.

 

Some insights from Redmondmag.com Security Acquisitions Sizzle IT-Enterprise Community

 

FYI -- Microsoft describes their current relationship with Symantec in this way...

 

I didn't say the opposite, I said what I said because the people that have to take the decision is the top people in Symantec.

 

Lets hope they do acquire Symantec, and bundle Norton Internet Security free with the OS. Ofcourse that will wipe out a few upstart security products, but while I dont like anybody loosing their jobs lets face it, there are way too many of security products out there. It seems like there is a new one every month.

 

Actually I don't like the idea. It probably means having norton preinstalled even if you made a clone pc -_- It should be a choice of the user. I hate it when computers come with Symantec or Mcaffee already installed and many crapware.

 

Agreed. The quote in Pleonasm's post describes this alliance though.

The more choice we have the better IMO. And the competition forces all security companies to improve their products all the time, which is also good for the users.

 

I think with Norton, McAfee, Trend, Kaspersky, ESET, FProt, FSecure, AVIRA that are always at each other's throats, there is enough competition to keep everyone on their toes. We dont need 70 additional security products to confuse the user. The more they are confused, the higher chance they will choose a crappy product and become a liability to themselves and everyone else on the internet.

 

not true, every single product is aimed to a specific audience. more products/solutions available mean more choices for a specific consumer.

Me neither.

Exactly.

Great idea...

LOL...

 

Hello qakbot,

Remember how wonderful IE5/6 were?

It was all ruined by Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome, etc.

And Symantec, what a shame they couldn't just stay big and mediocre. Oh why oh why did Avast - Avira - MSE - etc have to come along and confuse us all?

 

Give me a break. I think you know what I am talking about. Take a look at this list.

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/results?display=vendors

Leprechaun Antivirus ? Seriously ?

 

If I remember correctly, Leprechaun was around for a while, selling Leprechaun VirusBuster (based on the original VirusBuster). Later, it merged with Australian Projects Pty Ltd. and the product was redesigned as Zondex Guard (still based on VirusBuster). Therefore, one cannot call it "new" per se. It is, however, interesting to see that such products have survived in the marketplace with the market being as it is at the moment.

 

But no one is forcing you to use anything you don't like, right?

And Competition between different Vendors are good for new technologies to be developed!

 

Nice idea indeed. Or what would also be nice is that just as they did with the web browsers when installing Windows, is that a screen pops up that gives the user several choices of Freeware AV programs or Suits. With of course an option not to install any of them, and install your own favorite AV program or Suit.

 

Personally, I would prefer a subscription-based model for Windows. You pay an annual subscription fee and, for that fee, you receive all of the OS and associated tool functionality, in addition to all updates and upgrades without additional cost. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Microsoft make the move to a subscription model in the years to come.

 

An argument for why Symantec may not be acquired...

 

Hi Sis.

Actually, then maybe a couple of years ago there were shown a 3 part series on more Scandinavian TV channels about how big companies often acts in way that if an individual had done so it would have been considered psychopatic. (No I didn't just call Symantec psychopatic , I just agreed with your mis-trust).

Your reference "a Sucker is born every minute" is also rumored to have been used by a very "cruel-brother" , rumor says he was offered a very large sum of money to disclose the worlds greatest secret , he then took the money and whispered in the ear of whoever asked : "every minute is a sucker born".

But anyone knowing about female frontal glands , and be partly aware of their functions , should be able to testify that in general anyone born starts to "suck" soon after they have been born....

 

i don't believe it...

 

Symantec are a huge company by themselves with assets over $10 billion (MS -$86 Billion), with many acquisitions over the years.
Such a merger would be huge, but just another rumour.

 

Actually, they tried to sell it as OneCare - a premium security suite. When that failed they started giving it away to save the world from botnets and infected PCs - - but oddly, they only give it away if you have a legitimate copy of Windows. So all those hundreds of millions of PCs with pirated Windows and no AV - they can't use MSE. I guess Microsoft didn't want to make us safe from them. . . .