IBM has been merrily gobbling up security firms such as ISS and Watchfire for the last little while. Now, they have announced what everyone already knew, they have a security initiative underway.
IBM Corp. plans to announce Thursday that it will boost what it spends developing computer security products to $1.5 billion in 2008, reflecting an intensifying focus for the company.
IBM executives would not say how much they used to spend. But analyst Charles King of Pund-IT Research said he believes $1.5 billion would be twice what IBM traditionally spends on security research and product development each year.
The figure is separate from IBM’s spending on acquisitions that bring in new technology. In the past year IBM has bought several security companies, including Internet Security Systems Inc. for $1.3 billion and Watchfire Corp. for at least $100 million.
It will be interesting to see if IBM can make a horse race out of this. Or will it all come crashing down? For their sake I hope that they can pull this one off.
Tags: IBM Security, IBM Security Initiative, ISS, Watchfire
