This is pretty interesting, seems as though Microsoft has acquired an anti-spyware company noone’s ever heard of.
I know spyware and adware removal software is big business now but I’ve never heard of Giant Company Software Inc. (the company Microsoft acquired) and you’d think Bill would want to buy the best and brightest. Hmmm, wonder if the insider at MSFT found a diamond in the rough or if it’s just a lemon.
Looks like Microsoft has already made Giant’s anti-spyware software available for download.
Jason Dowdell
Update: By Murdok Editor …
There are also news reports that what Microsoft thought it bought … it didn’t get:
” Microsoft’s big move into the anti-spyware business has hit an immediate speed bump, with questions swirling around a Florida company’s claim that it co-owns the Giant AntiSpyware code-and all future definition updates-that Microsoft purchased earlier this week.
Sunbelt Software Distribution, which markets a spyware-protection application powered by Giant, reacted to the Microsoft acquisition with glee, but the software giant isn’t so sure that Sunbelt’s ownership claim is entirely accurate.
“This is fantastic news for us because we co-own the Giant code and all future definition updates,” Sunbelt president Alex Eckelberry said in an interview with eWEEK.com. “We now get the benefit of the Microsoft research on anti-spyware to give us, bar-none, the best anti-spyware signature database on the market.”
Amy Carroll, director of product management in Microsoft’s security business technology unit, acknowledged the Sunbelt co-ownership claim but believes Eckelberry is stretching the extent of the relationship going forward.”
Jason Dowdell is a technology entrepreneur and operates the Marketing Shift blog.
