Software takeovers

Cisco could also build on its purchase of Internet security company Sourcefire Inc. Even if things were going well, you could argue that you should put money to work there. Cisco may also need to address a glaring hole in its data center equipment portfolio. Chambers is more likely to strike an acquisition on the software side of the market, rather than in the slower-growing hardware industry. List of Partners vendors. Your Money. Personal Finance.

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Related Articles. Where a monopoly exists, there is no consumer choice, and the vendor has no incentive to improve its product or service, or to lower its prices. In the specific case of antivirus programs, a monopoly would be especially bad, because malware authors would only have one type of defence to bypass in order to infect computers.

So, the answer to the question above is that it depends very much on what the new owner does with the acquired company and its existing product. When an AV vendor is bought up, there are various possible scenarios. A possible example of this is the acquisition of Avira by NortonLifeLock. At the time of writing October , Avira continues to exist as a separate company, producing the same product under the Avira name.

It is therefore evident that two products have not been combined so far, although it is unclear what will happen in the future. The takeover of PC Tools by Symantec in is an example of this. Whilst PC Tools products continued for some time after the takeover, Symantec eventually abandoned the brand and products completely.

The more documentation that is available the better, since it will typically provide much needed background and explanation without the need to go searching code for every detail. Security vulnerabilities If the system is available on the public internet, in any form, or the data is particularly sensitive a security vulnerability assessment needs to be considered. Its important the customer understands the current risks and how they can plan to be mitigated, either immediately or over a planned period.

Software architecture The architecture of the software needs to be mapped out and reviewed to consider whether it will be able to meet the ongoing requirements of the business, particularly in relation to planned enhancements and scalability as the business grows.

Its important to get to grips with the database design early on and identify if improvements need to be planned into the work programme.

Coding style Coding styles and standards can vary greatly between developers. Whereas, poorly written code can lead to the very time consuming need to use a debugger through every line of code to understand what its actually meant to be doing. Source code structuring If the code and files are poorly structured, developers will either spend excess amounts of time struggling to maintain the poor structure or being forced into rewriting swathes of code each time even a small change or fix is required.

Dependent libraries licensing and support availability There is a need to research any non standard libraries and other software dependencies of the system to ensure licenses and support can still be obtained. System Environment Migration If the hosted environment is to be migrated as part of the takeover, make sure a clear plan can be formulated to migrate away from the current provider, along with any agreements to migrate data, environment configurations etc.

We have a proven track record of system handovers We approach all of our projects with the honesty and transparency you need to make informed decisions about the software that supports your business.