14 DAY TRIAL // Software giant CA Technologies, originally known as Computer Associates, has sold its antivirus unit to venture capital firm Updata Partners which will operate it as a standalone company.
The new company will be provisionally called Total Defense, Inc, after CA's primary antivirus product, and will be established when the deal closes, which is expected to happen sometime in June.
CA's Internet Security Business Unit (ISBU) was established ten years ago and was in charge of the company's endpoint security solutions.
CA claims that its anti-malware products are used by over 60,000 businesses and four million consumers.
The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but this is generally viewed as a good move by CA whose Q4 2010 sales failed to meet expectations.
"CA Technologies is one of the top software companies in the world, with a record of innovation and best-in-class solutions," said James Socas, General Partner at Updata Partners.
"We are delighted to be able to work with them, with the ISBU’s strong team, and on behalf of their customers and partners, to create a new leader in the information security market," he added.
However, even with important resources at its disposal CA hasn't managed to make it into the top four antivirus vendors, not even in the business sector where it has the strongest presence.
Even worse, the company's anti-malware products have scored poorly in recent antivirus comparative tests suggesting serious detection problems.
"Updata Partners will bring a broad set of resources and industry expertise to the business, while CA Technologies pursues its mission of empowering customers to fully leverage the cloud and other resources through new models of IT management," commented Jacob Lamm, executive vice president of CA Technologies.
Meanwhile, CA's enterprise security business will remain unaffected by this deal and will move forward with a focus on identity and access management software.