HP to Buy SIEM Vendor ArcSight

Hewlett-Packard has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) vendor ArcSight in a deal valued at $1.5 billion.

The PC manufacturer shows serious intentions of expanding its security portfolio, this being the second acquisition which involves a security company announced in under a month.

On August 17, the PC manufacturer revealed plans to acquire Fortify Software, a provider of software security assurance solutions.

ArcSight is based in Cupertino, California and develops products that analyze network activity and events in order to identify possible threats, attacks or policy violations in enterprise enviornments.

The company has over 1,000 customers, which include some of the world's largest corporations, as well as major government agencies.

Its most widely used products are ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) and ArcSight Logger.

"From a security perspective, the perimeter of today’s enterprise is porous, putting enormous pressure on clients’ risk and compliance systems.

"The combination of HP and ArcSight will provide clients with the ability to fortify their applications, proactively monitor events and respond to threats," said Bill Veghte, executive vice president of HP's Software and Solutions division.

The deal, which is expected to close before the end of the year, involves HP buying all of ArcSight’s outstanding shares of common stock at $43.50 per share.

HP is already present in the SIEM market sector with the HP Compliance Log Warehouse, a product designed to collect, store, correlate and analyze system log files, application log files or database events.

"By combining ArcSight's Enterprise Threat and Risk Management Platform with HP's breadth of application development and operations management solutions, HP will be able to offer an integrated security platform that delivers broader visibility, deeper context, and faster remediation of enterprise wide security and risk related events.

"In a world where perimeter security is no longer enough, businesses need this holistic approach to securing their networks, applications and sensitive data," concluded Tom Reilly, President & CEO, ArcSight.