I’m a bit late to the party on something very few could say they are surprised about.  Congrats to the Vontu team (and Benchmark Capital) on the $350MM acquisition by Symantec.  With revenues generously estimated at $30MM that’s a nice 10x+ multiple. Funny thing is that Gartner estimated the DLP (Data Loss Prevention) market to be pretty small (around $170MM in 2007, I believe).  Hope it works out for the Symantec folks who have their work cut out for them after a downgrade and questions regarding overpaying for Vontu. As for the other players out there, definitely a continuing sign of consolidation although one must wonder where Orchestria’s proclamation of "next generation" DLP factored into their partner Symantec’s decision process.  Hopefully Rich will chime in on that.  Also, interestingly, while I was at MessageGate we were called upon to handle the workflow around an email once the Vontu system detected it on more than one occasion.  Hope that was on the due dili check list…

Updated:  Thoughts on the DLP market and M&A from Rich Mogull.  Thanks Rich.