Sophos Acquires SurfRight to Strengthen and Accelerate Next-Generation Endpoint Protection Leadershi

[woodrowbone]

Great news! Did you try it out?

/W

 

[Cch123]

What I find curious is that Sophos acquired SurfRight for about 34 million USD. As Surfright claims to have 20 million users this seems like the bargain of the century! If this is indeed correct SR's gross sales must be easily over 200 million USD annually and I've never seen a company taken out at only a tenth of sales.

Not true, there are free versions of HitmanPro that is used by many people who are not paying customers. They are considered users too. And since we do not know the specifics of the deal, Surfright may have chosen to accept a lower payout in exchange for retaining all of its employees for example.

 

[Deleted member 178]

i believe SR incomes are not enough, lot of free users , not so much buyers.

in business, if your incomes are good enough , you don't sell , you develop.

 

[Enju]

Great news! Did you try it out?

/W

Not in bridged mode, otherwise it's working flawlessly.
I'm hoping to see some features from Hitman being integrated into it!

 

[CMLew]

i believe SR incomes are not enough, lot of free users , not so much buyers.

in business, if your incomes are good enough , you don't sell , you develop.

So it means all great stuff, doesn't come free

 

[cruelsister]

I didn't think of the users in non-paid mode (basically because I don't see the point in using it that way). But the one thing that should be considered is if Sophos will continue to pay to use definitions that are not their own.

 

[Online_Sword]

in business, if your incomes are good enough , you don't sell , you develop.

Things may become different when the capital market is taken into consideration.

Some investors may be more interested in cash than the long-term development of the company.

 

[Cch123]

I didn't think of the users in non-paid mode (basically because I don't see the point in using it that way). But the one thing that should be considered is if Sophos will continue to pay to use definitions that are not their own.

Good point, it would be interesting to see if Surfright continues paying Bitdefender and Kaspersky to use their engines in the HitmanPro cloud, when Surfright is now under one of their competitors.

 

[hjlbx]

Beta licenses will be harder to come by... I'd bet.

 

[Kiwimike]

I'm very exited, maybe they could bundle a removal application with their software or even use multiple engines in their software. The most important thing though is probably that Hitman Pro alert is also a part of surfright and could be incorperated into their product offering better security.
I personally used their UTM for a year and loved it. When their XG firewall was released (recently) I had some issues with failed installs and so I've installed IPfire in the meantime, but I really love the flexibility, protection and very advanced configurations possible with the free versions of sophos.

I'm a big fan of Sophos, and can't wait to see what they have in store next. After their new XG firewall and Heartbeat technology, they could ACTUALLY RULE THE ENTERPRISE SOON! The more bigger products, Symantec and Mcafee in particular are good, but aren't improving as much as they should to keep up with the criminals, so Sophos might just totally blow them out of the water. It's a possibility.

I'm just exited to see how Sophos uses Surfright, in my eyes Sophos should incorperate Alert into their products and also incorperate the removal tool as an emergancy scanner in their product.

 

[woodrowbone]

Or integrate Sophos cloud in the HitmaPro removal tool?
Many great possibility's here

/W

 

[FleischmannTV]

Very smart move by Sophos.

 

[Cch123]

This statement may clear up some of the concerns here.

"Hi, I’m Dan Schiappa, I head up the Sophos Enduser Security Group. We are really excited to welcome SurfRight and and all of you, the valued SurfRight customers, to Sophos! I wanted to directly address some of the questions raised here – first, we do intend to continue to offer both free tools, HitmanPro and HitmanPro.Alert, as standalone downloads. As noted here, we have great strength in development and can continue to work with the SurfRight team to enhance these tools and the technology. We also plan to integrate these capabilities into the Sophos portfolio of security solutions for businesses. We will honor any current license agreements you have from SurfRight, and free tools will continue to be free. Sophos has a portfolio of free security tools for home users that we have just extended with a brand new Sophos Home tool (check it out for Mac and PC), and we see the tools from SurfRight as a perfect complement. Product support will continue through the forums, emails and discussion boards you use today, and any transitions we eventually make to Sophos platforms will be transparent, so you’re never left with nowhere to go. The Sophos Community includes free support for home and free tools – take a look here. Thanks for your support of SurfRight, I know you are all fans of the product, as we are at Sophos (or we wouldn't have bought them). My goal is to make you love the products even more and by combining their outstanding tech and innovation with Sophos' outstanding tech and innovation you will have the best products you can find on the market, be it free or paid! Thanks for letting us into the SurfRight family, and we will make you all proud!"

Source: HitmanPro.ALERT Support and Discussion Thread | Page 322 | Wilders Security Forums

 

[woomera]

no doubt sophos AV will become an even more of a beast now > I LIKE THAT
their products will definitely worth paying for for home users now, cannot wait to see how their AV will improve.

 

[CMLew]

Well, after hearing positive comments here, I'm back with the positive mind hoping there would be another exciting products coming soon.

PS. I did not realise my company is also using Sophos. Played al while though it's Admin locked. quite a no. of features to play around and they have HIPS!

 

[conceptualclarity]

They better not do like Symantec did with PC Tools.

 

[Ink]

Surfright's non-consumer products may benefit Sophos greatly as well as many businesses.