[funsec] symantec to buy pc tools

[Nick FitzGerald]

Alex Eckelberry wrote:

> http://www.symantec.com/about/news/release/article.jsp?prid=20080818_02

Isn't this the second time?

Many, many years ago Symantec bought Central Point Software, the parent 
company of the products "PC Tools" (which was a (once) popular competitor 
to the Norton Utilities) and of Central Point AntiVirus (CPAV).

IIRC, they then promptly killed all of CP's products with the exception 
of CPAV -- probably the single crappiest "big name" AV of its time -- 
which they rebadged as Microsoft AntiVirus (which then became the 
crappiest "big name" AV of the time).  Or maybe CP had already done that 
deal with Microsoft, before the Symantec purchase, so that MS could 
include an AV -- _any_ AV -- in the MS-DOS v5.0 release?  (I heard MS 
wasn't willing to pay very much in royalties for the privilege of 
bundling whatever AV they could get, hence they got the crappiest and one 
of several "obviously failing" products at the time...)

Regardless of whether the CPAV/MS deal was pre- or post-Symantec buyout, 
I'm fairly sure Symantec actually produced detection update files for 
MSAV for a while after it bought CP, but not for long/very regularly.


Regards,

Nick FitzGerald