Leader: Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate

Further consolidation took place in the security industry today with news that CA has bought Netegrity (of lost laptop fame).

The move marks the latest in a flurry of mergers and acquisitions within the security industry, contrary to the suggested wisdom of one industry figure who recently warned that the large consolidators will lose the selling power of perceived specialisation if they spread themselves too widely over the security landscape.

While CA had previously ruled out any more acquisitions, it appeared security was always going to be the exception to that rule - recently the company also purchased Pest Patrol.

Add to that Symantec buying Brightmail, TurnTide and @stake, McAfee splashing out on Foundstone, TruSecure and BeTrusted merging, Microsoft buying GeCad and numerous other movements in the market, and it creates an image of an industry rapidly changing shape and structure.

So where will it all end?

There are still a lot of smaller AV firms left in Europe who probably look particularly tempting to the major players and getting bought may be their best bet in a market rapidly offering homogenised, managed solutions. The need to cover all bases, whether rightly or wrongly, that also means a lot of standalone specialist companies will likely be consumed.

In June Microsoft was linked with a mega-bucks move for McAfee. At the time and subsequently it's been vehemently denied, though the smoke hasn't entirely gone away.

At the heart of that rumour is also the notion that Microsoft may be looking to spend big on security - if not McAfee then perhaps somebody else - if it is going to make the mooted leap into the security industry.

If that happens, then further flurries of consolidation may become even more dramatic and reactive to that change but, with or without the Redmond chequebook opening further, there is likely to be much more consolidation.