McAfee, the Intel-owned security specialist, has just announced that it is buying Stonesoft Oyj,a Finland-based specialist in firewall protection products, for $389 million in cash. The move will let McAfee expand its product line specifically in cloud-based networked security products, to complement the antivirus services for which McAfee is best known.

Stonesoft, a publicly-traded company in Finland, says in a statement to the market that it is publicly recommending the offer.

It notes that the price offered for each share tendered in the offer will be €4.50 in cash ($5.90), a premium of around 142% compared to the volume-weighted average trading price of the Stonesoft shares on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki over the last 12 months; 106% above the average trading price in the last three months; and a 128% premium on the closing price last Friday.

The deal comes at a time when PCs are sitting side by side with other kinds of devices like tablets and smartphones on networks, and more information is moving off devices and on to cloud-based systems. Stonesoft, which has around 6,500 customers, has made a name for itself in working at the cutting edge of networked-security solutions, offering coverage for areas where hackers are learning to bypass traditional security walls, something Stonesoft refers to as Advanced Evasion Techniques. It sells security-as-a-service style products that work across both customer premises’ equipment and cloud-based services. Stonesoft’s customers include governments, retailers, financial services companies and more.

“With the pending addition of Stonesoft’s products and services, McAfee is making a significant investment in next-generation firewall technology. These solutions anticipate emerging customer needs in a continually evolving threat landscape,” said Michael DeCesare, McAfee President, in a statement. “Stonesoft is a leading innovator in this important market segment.” He added that McAfee will integrate Stonesoft’s products into McAfee’s cloud-based Security Connected strategy. This will include McAfee’s IPS Network Security Platform, McAfee’s Firewall Enterprise for the high assurance market segment, and now Stonesoft’s next-generation firewall — with the “next-generation” of firewall management also a point highlighted by Pal Calhoun, VP and GM of security products for McAfee, in a blog post.

This deal comes two months after McAfee announced it it acquired ValidEdge from LynuxWorks, to beef up its malware detection services. Terms of that deal were not disclosed.

All the same, Stonesoft may represent the future of IT security, but presently its results are more mixed. For the first quarter of 2013, net sales for Stonesoft were 9.2 million euros ($12 million), up 12% over last year, but it also posted a loss per share of 0.03 euro cents ($0.04) down by 0.02 euro cents on a year ago.

There is a strong business argument for McAfee buying into more expertise and products in the area of networked security.

On one hand, security attacks on cloud-based systems are on the rise, and that is affecting both consumers and enterprises. On the consumer side, companies like Twitter and Evernote have reported security breaches.

On the enterprise side, companies like Github, Dwolla and Zendesk (with the latter affecting Tumblr, Pinterest and more) have also been impacted by malicious hackers on the hunt for sensitive data.

On the other hand, the bedrock of McAfee’s security portfolio is eroding away: according to figures from IDC out last month, PC devices saw their biggest single-quarter decline in Q1, with shipments down 14% to 76.3 million units. That, in effect, is a decline in the sector that McAfee traditionally counted as its biggest, as consumers and businesses opt instead for devices like tablets and smartphones, which rely much more on cloud-based storage and computing, to replace how PCs would have traditionally been used.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/06/int...-389m-in-cash/