You know when an industry has matured; that's when companies begin purchasing one another at a rapid clip. This happened back in the 1980s when fledgling security supercompanies Symantec and McAfee went on a purchasing spree; and, it's happening again, only the players are slightly different. Within the last two years, Symantec purchased six security-related companies, Computer Associates bought six, Microsoft four, and McAfee and Trend Micro picked up two each. Some of the swallowed-up company names should be familiar: Groove, Qurb, PestPatrol, PowerQuest, and Tiny Personal Firewall. But here's the amazing thing: 11 of the 20 purchases occurred within 2005 alone. What does all this mean to you and me? Well, for one thing, less choice when it comes to security software. [..]

Here's a chart of who's who in the security space today.

(Alphabetical order)	Symantec	Computer Associates	Microsoft	McAfee	Trend Micro
@Stake (security auditing)	Bought in 2004
BrightMail (e-mail)	Bought in 2004
BindView (security)	Bought in 2005
Concord Communications (wireless, VoIP)		Bought in 2005
Foundstone (security auditing)				Bought in 2004
FrontBridge (network security)			Bought in 2005
Giant Software (antispyware)			Bought in 2004
GeCAD (antivirus)			Bought in 2003
Groove (P2P)			Bought in 2005
Intermute (antispyware)					Bought in 2005
Kelkea (IP filtering)					Bought in 2005
Netegrity (security)		Bought in 2004
PestPatrol (antispyware)		Bought 2004
PowerQuest (drive utilities)	Bought in 2003
Qurb (antispam)		Bought in 2005
Sybari (antivirus, antispam)			Bought in 2005
Sygate (firewall)	Bought in 2005
Tiny Personal FireWall (firewall)		Bought 2005
Veritas (backup)	Bought in 2004
Wireless Security Group (wireless)				Bought in 2005
Totals	Bought 6	Bought 6	Bought 4	Bought 2	Bought 2

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