The rumored acquisition, widely expected, was true. Symantec planned for a year to enter the Data-Loss Prevention (DLP) market. And since october 2006, it wasn’t a secret that Symantec was looking to make a bid on Vontu. Both companies had a partnership for almost two years, with Vontu licensing his technology to Symantec, most of it delivered through the Symantec Mail Security 8300 appliance.

DLP technology prevents the leakage of confidental information. Deployed at the network perimeter and/or inside the network (host based), DLP technology monitors all sensitive information, using lexical database or hashing systems, and alerts when restricted content leaves the network.  Vontu Data Loss Prevention 8 can detect data as it is used, copied or send, based on a multiple layer approach. Vontu Endpoint Discover, an agent based product, is installed on the endpoint to scan local systems for sensitive data. Then Vontu Endpoint Prevent can block users from copying such data to removable storage devices (USB keys, externals hard drives, iPods, etc). Data Loss Prevention 8 finds data stored in products such as SharePoint, Documentum, Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes.

According to Gartner DLP is a fast-growing segment of the security market. Along with content management and filtering, it is estimated between $120 and $150 million in 2007, up from $50 million in 2006. It’s no surprise Symantec made this move.

In october 2006, McAfee already bought Onigma, a privately held Israel provider of DLP software and Services. Then last october, the company added encryption provider SafeBoot, to protect sensitive information on mobile devices. And later, Trend Micro snatched Provilla. Back in january this year, Websense also bought an Israeli company called PortAuthority. And even the storage players have been interested. EMC, via its security division RSA, acquired, on last august, Tablus.

The $350 million Symantec deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2007, subject to receiving regulatory approvals.