October 03, 2005 07:30 ET

Symantec to Acquire Bindview

Extends IT Policy Compliance Solutions by Offering Agent-Based and Agent-Less Architectures

CUPERTINO, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- October 3, 2005 -- Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire BindView Development Corporation (NASDAQ: BVEW), a global provider of agent-less IT security compliance software. The all-cash transaction, which is subject to regulatory and BindView shareholder approvals, is valued at approximately $209 million or $4 per share and is expected to close in the first calendar quarter of 2006. Upon close of this acquisition, Symantec expects to provide a comprehensive end-to-end solution for policy compliance and vulnerability management, offering customers a choice of agent-based or agent-less technology architectures.

"Today's global organizations are challenged by an ever-changing security environment and by the need to meet multiple government regulations," said Ajei Gopal, senior vice president, Solutions, Alliances and Operations, Symantec. "We are excited to be able to offer customers BindView's leading agent-less policy compliance solution. Not only will we be able to meet customers' IT security and policy compliance needs with a complete range of product capabilities, but we will also be able to help reduce the cost and complexity associated with compliance."

Agent-based and agent-less policy compliance solutions are complementary capabilities in the IT environment and address different customer needs. Symantec's agent-based technology architecture offers full-featured compliance and vulnerability management, and is well suited for enterprises that have complex and heterogeneous IT environments. BindView's agent-less architecture, which is less IT-staff intensive, is ideal for organizations faced with managing a large number of systems that are not centrally located, such as Windows desktop machines deployed throughout the enterprise.

"BindView provides organizations with IT security compliance solutions that enable them to enforce policies, demonstrate compliance, as well as protect their global IT environments from malicious threats and vulnerabilities," said Eric J. Pulaski, chairman and chief executive officer, BindView Corporation. "We are thrilled to combine our agent-less technology with Symantec's complementary industry-leading products to create a powerful solution set that will offer customers comprehensive capabilities for meeting the critical demands of their IT infrastructures."

Symantec & BindView Capabilities

Enterprises in both the public and private sector are faced with meeting an increasing list of regulatory mandates, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and Basel II. Compliance with these regulations is difficult and expensive, placing new burdens on businesses as they also work to secure their global IT infrastructures.

BindView's IT security compliance software helps simplify and reduce the cost of demonstrating regulatory compliance by automating three critical functions -- policy and compliance management, vulnerability and configuration management, and directory and access management. Its technology helps organizations define and manage security policies and demonstrate compliance with new and evolving regulations. It also helps customers assess vulnerabilities, secure IT configurations and remediate exposures for servers, workstations, applications and networks across multi-platform environments.

Together, Symantec and BindView offer companies a choice of industry-leading agent-based or agent-less solutions that will enable them to define, control and sustain their IT compliance requirements. The combined companies will offer the most comprehensive end-to-end solution for policy and vulnerability management from a single vendor. Companies will be able to define and create policies based on the regulations, frameworks and standards that are relevant for their industry. Organizations can control compliance by implementing secure configurations, addressing vulnerabilities including patch management, securing user access, and developing sound policies. Lastly, companies can sustain IT compliance by providing evidence of compliance and clearly demonstrating due care.

About BindView

BindView Development Corporation is a global provider of IT security compliance software. BindView solutions remove barriers that limit an organization's ability to cost-effectively demonstrate due care and maintain compliance with IT security policies and regulatory mandates. BindView policy compliance, vulnerability and configuration management, and directory and access management software combines best-practice knowledge with automated controls to reduce risk and protect IT assets at the lowest cost across users, systems, applications and databases in multi-platform environments. More than 20 million licenses have been sold to 5,000 companies worldwide, spanning all major business segments and the public sector.

About Symantec

Symantec is the world leader in providing solutions to help individuals and enterprises assure the security, availability, and integrity of their information. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has operations in more than 40 countries. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws, including expectations regarding the closing of Symantec's acquisition of BindView and the integration of its products and technologies into Symantec's products and solutions, that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in this press release. Such risk factors include, among others, satisfaction of closing conditions to the transaction, our ability to successfully integrate the merged businesses and technologies, and customer demand for the technologies and integrated product offerings. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors is contained in the Risk Factors sections of Symantec's most recently filed Forms 10-K and 10-Q. Symantec assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained in this press release.