Sourcefire turns down $186 million takeover bid

Unsolicited offer from Barracuda Networks rejected.

Sourcefire, the open source specialists behind the popular Snort intrusion prevention system and backer of the ClamAV open-source anti-malware project, has announced that it has rejected an unexpected takeover bid from anti-spam appliance specialist Barracuda Networks, claiming the rumoured $186 million offer 'substantially undervalues' the company's worth.

Barracuda is a user of Sourcefire's ClamAV technology in some of its appliance products, and recently became embroiled in a patent row with Trend Micro over this implementation. The move to bring the development of the free scanning engine in-house has been seen by some as a move to gain leverage in the ongoing case.

A brief statement from Sourcefire is here, with the initial offer announcement from Barracuda here.

03 June 2008

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