Microsoft dismisses antivirus acquisition rumours

Microsoft has moved to dampen down speculation that it is looking to make a major acquisition in the antivirus market.

The software giant was the subject of rumours last month that it was in talks to buy security firm Network Associates.

Speaking to silicon.com at the Tech Ed developer conference in Amsterdam this week, Steven Adler, European senior security specialist at Microsoft, said the company's antivirus plans are still at an early stage, including the integration of technology from last year's acquisition of Romanian antivirus firm Gecad.

"We're still working on integrating that technology," he said. "In the antivirus space we have to work really closely with the antivirus vendors because we don't want to natively impact their business."

Although he wouldn't comment directly on the Network Associates rumour, Adler claimed Microsoft is in no hurry to hit the acquisition trail.

"We're quite happy with what we've got," he said.

The possibility of acquisition wasn't ruled out completely but Adler hinted that Microsoft would go down the partnering route for future antivirus plans.

"The single object is we want to make sure every client system by default has an antivirus solution. Whether that's Microsoft or a third party, there needs to be that basic level of protection."

Adler also dismissed continued criticisms that open-source software is more secure than Microsoft's.

"It's really just a perception problem," he said. "The number of vulnerabilities in our products is coming down. On average in open source there is at least one kernel patch every month and you have to reboot those systems."

Earlier in the week at the Tech Ed conference, Microsoft also hailed its forthcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2 as a "victory for the security guys".