U.S. Prevents Sale of Software Security Firm: FBI/Pentagon stop Israeli

Quite frankly, I'm shocked!

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A leading Israeli software company failed to resolve security objections by the Bush administration over its plans to buy a smaller U.S. technology rival and abruptly abandoned the US$225 million (euro187 million) deal.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. of Ramat Gan, Israel, withdrew its plans Thursday near the conclusion of a rare, full-blown investigation by a U.S. review panel over the company's plans to buy Sourcefire Inc.

Check Point had been told U.S. officials feared the transaction could endanger some of government's most sensitive computer systems.

Lawyers for the companies offered to attach conditions to the sale that executives believed were onerous, but were intended to satisfy the concerns expressed by the review panel, said one person familiar with the process. But no agreement could be reached.

The Treasury Department, which oversees the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, formally accepted Check Point's request to withdraw from the review process.

more...

http://www.technologyreview.com/TR/wtr_16632,323,p1.html

This goes way back...I don't see the .gov allowing CheckPoint to buy any US-owned security software company. Ever.

nt

I should do a journal on Check Point and the US government.

I'm a little rushed at the moment.

Let me see if I can pull together the time later today.

It's a fascinating story.

nt