Analysis says Symantec should build alliances with it giants to counter Intel

August 22, according to foreign media reports, Intel's acquisition of McAfee with USD 768 million may force security software competitor Symantec to try to build a technology to block hackers and build new alliances within corporate computers to remain competitive. Intel's acquisition of McAfee heralds a change in the global security software market. The global security software market is 16.5 billion dollars in size, according to Gartner, a market research firm.　　As consumers and businesses connect more PCs, servers, smartphones and other products to the network, McAfee will let Intel put the protection program into the chips of these devices, improving performance and making the system vulnerable to attack. James Covello, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, said Symantec should sign new cooperation agreements with various technology providers such as HP, IBM and Oracle.　　Symantec also needs to expand its network security products to protect corporate computers. Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS AG in San Francisco, said Symantec was far from being secure in cyberspace. He was rated "neutral" by Symantec's shares and did not hold any Symantec shares.　　Staying away from cybersecurity would make it impossible for Symantec to compete with companies such as Cisco, Juniper Networks and check point, which dominate the field. As McAfee was acquired to show the importance of security software, Symantec shares have seen their biggest gains in the 10 months since Thursday. Analysts said Symantec itself could not be an acquisition target because the company's market capitalisation was 10.9 billion dollars.　　Symantec stocks rose 43 cents in the Nasdaq market in Friday, up 3.2%, trading at $13.80. Goldman Sachs analyst Covello said HP, IBM and Oracle may favour some form of alliance with Symantec rather than acquire Symantec because they do not want to compete directly with Intel.