Microsoft's idea to purchase Sybari Software came from a place where many of its ideas are born--its labs.
Late last year, the software giant wanted to build on an important technology--the RAV antivirus software that it acquired from Romania-based GeCad--to take it beyond a desktop virus scanner to a security product for businesses. Rather than develop the extra software needed, the company looked to partners. Sybari's Antigen scanner for Microsoft Exchange e-mail and SharePoint collaboration servers seemed an obvious fit, because Microsoft's customers were already using it.
But as the development progressed in the labs, it became even more obvious that Sybari's product would make just as good an addition to the whole of Microsoft's security lineup, said Mike Nash, head of the company's security business and technology unit.
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