Microsoft has completed its acquisition of Sybari, a company which makes anti-virus and anti-spam solutions and plans to discontinue new sales of the Sybari's products for Unix and Linux platforms.

As with other technology company mergers, Microsoft and Sybari will focus on ways to integrate the smaller company's products into the Microsoft lineup, and will develop new products that are based on Sybari's expertise.

Existing Sybari sales and licensing models will remain intact for the immediate future, according to Microsoft, and the company's operations will continue in its current East Northport, N.Y., offices.

"By maintaining a complete focus on protecting the Microsoft Windows platform and taking the time to truly understand how Windows systems work within corporate environments, we can best protect the essential data and functions that they serve," Microsoft security chief Mike Nash said in a statement.

Microsoft chose Sybari out of a wide array of antivirus vendors in the marketplace because of the strength of the company's products coupled with the company's industry partnerships.

"The completion of this acquisition means that the benefits of Sybari's products will be available to a much broader range of customers," said Microsoft corporate vice president Mike Nash in a statement.

Sybaris main selling point was that it did not have its own antivirus engine or signatures service. Instead, it allows users to run multiple engines from a selection of eight partners, including Sophos, Computer Associates, Kaspersky Labs, VirusBuster and Norman.

The larger vendors, the ones with the most exposure to Microsofts forthcoming entry to the desktop antivirus market, such as Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro, are not believed to be current Sybari partners.

Microsoft said it will, however, continue to offer Sybaris antivirus gateways, known as Antigen, for IBM Corps Domino, which competes with Microsofts own Exchange. As long as it is running on Windows NT, of course.

Source: Xinhua/agencies