IBM said Wednesday it agreed to acquire risk management software
vendor Watchfire Corp.
Financial details were not disclosed. Waltham, Mass.-based
Watchfire develops AppScan, Web application vulnerability
assessment software and WebXM, to conduct Website risk assessments.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2007.
IBM said the Watchfire technology will extend IBM's governance
and risk management strategy. Watchfire's operations will become
part of IBM's Rational development platform, which provides tools
for developers to model, design and build Web-based architectures
for SOA, systems and applications.
"Watchfire with IBM Rational software will help customers
integrate Web application security and compliance early on and
throughout the software development process," IBM said in a
statement. "As a result, customers will now be able to define, test
and track the compliance of their applications with security, legal
and corporate requirements."
IBM said it also expects Watchfire technology to complement
existing IBM Tivoli identity, access and compliance management
software offerings and ISS by extending security and compliance
testing as an integrated element of the application development
lifecycle.