You know when an industry has matured; that's when companies begin purchasing one another at a rapid clip. This happened back in the 1980s when fledgling security supercompanies Symantec and McAfee went on a purchasing spree; and, it's happening again, only the players are slightly different. Within the last two years, Symantec purchased six security-related companies, Computer Associates bought six, Microsoft four, and McAfee and Trend Micro picked up two each. Some of the swallowed-up company names should be familiar: Groove, Qurb, PestPatrol, PowerQuest, and Tiny Personal Firewall. But here's the amazing thing: 11 of the 20 purchases occurred within 2005 alone. What does all this mean to you and me? Well, for one thing, less choice when it comes to security software.
