Fairfax, Virginia-based Norman Data Defense Systems Inc has picked up the pieces of the Dutch antivirus house ESaSS BV- ThunderByte it didn’t already own after a two-year romance that saw the two closely collaborate on anti-virus and network security technology. The deal – for an amount of cash and stock whose exact value was still being calculated last week covers the 20% of ThunderByte’s research arm that Norman didn’t already own and all of ThunderByte’s marketing subsidiary. Norman plans to merge the ThunderByte product line into its own offerings. The ThunderByte organization will be renamed Norman Data Defense Systems BV and be converted into a European research center. Norman picks up products ranging from desktop anti-virus software sold retail to NT-based electronic mail virus scanning engines. Norman president and chief executive George Dreyer said he hopes the acquisition will help boost Norman annual sales past the $25m mark, up from about $18m. Norman is one of the lesser-known anti- virus players in the US market – though it claims 600,000 users in the US and holds number one market share in Scandinavia – because all its sales have been on a company-to-company or company-to-government basis. ThunderByte sales have been mostly through distribution and retail channels, and Dreyer reckons broadened market channels may be more important to Norman than the Dutch technology or products since their product lines overlap substantially and use the same co-developed core technology.
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