Microsoft acquisition shakes anti-virus market. (Infrastructure News Review).

In a move long feared by the anti-virus software market, Microsoft Corp announced it intends to buy an AV firm, second-tier Romanian developer GeCAD Software Srl, and will start offering AV products and services.

The move created immediate ripples of concern in the industry. Shares in some security software vendors dipped while the market digested the news. Some commentators started drawing on Netscape metaphors to describe the move.

Amy Carroll, general manager of Microsoft's security business unit, told ComputerWire the company has only partially decided how to deliver the products. Anti-virus products have two components, she said, the scanning engine and the virus definitions updates.

"We don't know how the engine will be delivered. We do know that the updates... will not be free," she said. She said the company currently plans to deliver the product in such a way that it will be an option for users, as opposed to an integral part of, say, Windows.

Vendors seem to agree that Microsoft's move will urge the market along the path of evolution it was already traveling, with security software vendors combining virus protection with other forms of intrusion prevention.

A paid subscription service aimed at consumers would put the company in head-on competition with existing AV vendors, including partners such as Network Associates Inc, which provides virus scanning for the Hotmail service.

But Microsoft was eager to play down the impression that it is stepping on any toes. Having settled with Netscape over charges it acted anti-competitively to seize the browser market, it faces similar accusations in other areas of its business.