McAfee buys Solidcore

McAfee Inc. has acquired Solidcore Systems Inc. in an all-cash deal, The move that will expand its compliance capabilities and offer new business opportunities.

McAfee Inc. will acquire Solidcore Systems Inc., a provider of dynamic whitelisting technology, for $33 million in an all-cash deal.

An additional $14 million might be provided at a later unspecified date if certain performance targets are met, McAfee officials said today.

Through the acquisition, McAfee plans to couple Solidcore’s whitelisting and compliance enforcement technology with McAfee’s compliance mapping and policy auditing technology to produce a more comprehensive approach to information technology security compliance, company officials said.

The acquisition will significantly boost McAfee’s compliance capabilities and virtualization security offerings, the officials said. It also will provide new business opportunities to provide compliance technologies for various banking, sales, and mobile and embedded devices.

Whitelisting technology protects applications installed on a computer by approving those that are considered safe to run and blocking potentially malicious ones. Its purpose is to boost IT compliance and ensure computer security. The technology can be used to improve IT security on servers, endpoints, fixed function devices and mobile devices.

McAfee, of Santa Clara, Calif., provides security technologies to the public and private sectors.