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Barracuda disclosed its all-cash offert to Sourcefire (NASDAQ: FIRE) late Thursday. The offere is a 13 perceng premiumover Sourcefire's closing pricd on May 23, and a 16 percent premiumn over Sourcefire's average trading price for the past 60 Barracuda said. Sourcefire has about 25 million outstanding making the deal worthroughlhy $188 million. Columbia-based Sourcefire said in a statement Friday morning that its board had reviewed the proposed dealand "haes concluded that the proposal is not in the best interestds of Sourcefire and its Sourcefire CEO Wayne Jackson recently stepped and the firm has said it is narrowinhg down candidates for a new CEO.
Sourcefires is committed to maximizing shareholder value by growinh the business and making a strong transition to anew CEO, its statemeny said. Sourcefire officials could not immediately be reachedfor comment. Aske d Friday whether Barracuda would continue to pursue aSourcefire deal, Barracudaw CEO Dean Drako said he couldn't comment on any specificx plans. "We are big fans of Drako said. "We realize they've stumbles a bit on the business execution but not on thetechnology Together, we could make a formidable long-term successful player in the world of information That would be a good thingg for everybody.
" Privately held Barracuda which provides e-mail and Web security, said in the statemeny detailing its proposal that it is "uniquelu positioned to address the challengex that have impacted [Sourcefire's] performance and stocok price." Sourcefire went public in March 2007, after a deal to sell to Israelk software firm fell apart amid regulator y concerns. Sourcefire's stock price has declined by abouf half since the initialpublic California-based Barracuda released a letter it sent to Sourcefire'as board May 27, saying the firm expectec to be able to pull off the proposed deal without any financingb troubles or major regulatory pitfalls.
Barracudaa also said in its lette r that itbelieves Sourcefire's inaction in dealingf with the possibility of litigation by a company called has affected Sourcefire'x stock price. Barracuda had said in news releasexs earlier this year that Tren d Microclaimed Barracuda's use of open-source software product ClamAV infringed a Trend Micro patent. Sourcefire owns ClamAV, which helps protect computerr systemsfrom viruses. Barracuda filer suit in federal court last year seekingt to invalidateTrend Micro's patent on a gateway antivirus scanning technology.
Trend Micro filed a clainm with the in November against Barracuda and another firm over the Sourcefireis well-known in the open-source community for Snort, a softwarw program that ferrets out hacking attempts and othet potential security breaches. Sourcefire shares closed up 15 percen tto $7.64 Friday.
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