HP to pay $1.5B for security management firm

Hewlett-Packard Co. is buying ArcSight Inc., a security and compliance management company, for $43.50 per share, or an enterprise value of $1.5 billion, HP announced today.

The acquisition will be conducted by means of a cash tender offer for all of ArcSight’s outstanding shares of common stock.

The combination of HP and ArcSight will improve security, reduce risk and facilitate compliance at a lower cost for customers, and “ArcSight’s superior technology is highly complementary to HP’s existing security portfolio of hardware, software and services,” according to the statement.

Together, HP and ArcSight, of Cupertino, Calif., will be well-positioned to secure even the most demanding environments by delivering:

• Broader visibility: A comprehensive view of all events across IT operations, security and compliance.
• Deeper context: The ability to detect threats and risks by correlating both activity and state changes in real time.
• Better continuity: A constant feedback loop between build, manage and monitor to ensure that enterprises remain secure.

“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 enterprisewide security and risk-related events,” said Tom Reilly, ArcSight president and CEO, in the statement.

The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close by the end of the calendar year.

Hewlett-Packard Co., of Palo Alto, Calif., ranks No. 12 on Washington Technology’s 2010 Top 100 list of the largest federal government contractors.