Hewlett-Packard Co. will purchase Symantec Inc.'s Networking Business Unit for US$30 million and incorporate the Symantec products into its HP OpenView systems and networking management platform, the companies announced today.
Symantec's networking unit produces the Norton Administrator Suite, which includes
Norton Administrator for Networks, Expose server-management solution, and Norton
Desktop Administrator. HP has already bundled some of the Symantec products on its
HP OpenView Professional Suite CD.
Symantec officials said their networking products have sold for more than 2 million
nodes. The division and more than 85 of its employees will be incorporated into HP's
Network and System Management Division.
Olivier Helleboid, general manager of HP's network and system management division
said Symantec will provide three key benefits to HP: the products of both companies
complement each other; HP will gain expertise through the Symantec people joining
their work force; the companies can combine sales and marketing channels.
HP purchased the following products:
-- Norton Administrator for Networks, which features heterogeneous software
distribution, hardware and software inventory, and software-license metering;
-- Expose, server-management software that allows users to manage Windows NT,
Banyan Vines, and NetWare servers;
-- Norton Desktop Administrator, which helps in desktop-configuration and
troubleshooting.
By the second half of the year, the Symantec products will be branded under the HP
OpenView name, with further integration between the two products scheduled after that.
Symantec, in Santa Monica, California, is at (800) 441-7234 and
http://www.symantec.com/. Symantec has set up special email and phone lines to
address customer questions about the merger at (800) 613-2302 and
transition@symantec.com/.
Hewlett-Packard, in Palo Alto, California, is at +1-415-857-1501 and
http://www.hp.com/go/openview/.