Microsoft to buy FrontBridge

Microsoft plans to acquire FrontBridge Technologies, a provider of secure messaging services, taking its push into the security market a step further.

The software giant will integrate FrontBridge's corporate messaging protection with its Microsoft Exchange Server email product, Microsoft said in its announcement Wednesday. The Los Angeles-based security company's services, which include instant message archiving and spam filtering, are designed to safeguard all electronic messages and make sure they are compliant with regulatory requirements such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Dave Thompson, vice president in Microsoft's Exchange Server Group, said in a statement: "Both companies are focused on solving the same difficult messaging challenge - ensuring customers' email is compliant, better protected from spam and virus threats, and always available."

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter, a Microsoft representative said.

The FrontBridge deal follows an announcement Microsoft made earlier in the day that it was investing in Finjan Software, a security company that has developed behaviour-based software to block viruses and spyware.

Dawn Kawamoto writes for News.com