HP offloads Tipping Point to Trend Micro for $300m

Trend Micro is acquiring HP TippingPoint for around $300 million, after HP deemed the business not central to its evolving Helion cloud services business.

Trend Micro reckons the acquisition positions it as the “go-to enterprise security provider of dynamic threat defence solutions”, spanning endpoints, networks, data centres and the cloud. With Tipping Point, Trend Micro says it will have around 3,500 enterprise customers.

Eva Chen, CEO of Trend Micro, said: “Given our tenure with both HP and TippingPoint technology, we are excited about the agility of this acquisition and the value it will create for customers.”

Since 2014, Trend Micro and TippingPoint have had a strategic partner relationship. And HP and Trend Micro will “continue to be strong partners post transaction”, said Chen.

The two companies will form a strategic partnership around re-sale, managed services and OEM activities, as well as security intelligence, app security and data security.

The deal is expected to be finalised by the end of the fourth quarter of 2015, subject to regulatory requirements. HP acquired the Tipping Point business when it took over 3Com, who had previously bought it.

HP itself will be splitting into two companies from 1 November, one to deal with enterprise and services business, the other to sell PCs and printers.

@AntonySavvas