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The Buzz

Microsoft to acquire security network designer

Microsoft Corp. plans to acquire Sybari Software Inc., which makes programs designed to protect business computer networks from viruses, worms and other threats.

Terms of the deal, the latest in a series of security-related purchases by Microsoft, were not disclosed. Sybari is privately held but filed papers last year for an initial public stock offering.

Microsoft is gearing up to release a set of antivirus software products that will compete with offerings from companies such as Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc.

The Sybari acquisition will produce Microsoft's first official separate paid antivirus offering, said Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Security Business and Technology Unit. Sybari's software scans businesses' e-mail to try to ward off attacks.

Nash said Microsoft subsequently would release other products, for both consumers and business users, aimed at protecting computer desktops from Internet-based attacks. He could not say exactly when those would be released, however.

Microsoft purchased a Romanian antivirus firm, GeCAD Software Srl., for an undisclosed amount in 2003. In December, it bought Giant Company Software Inc., which makes tools to remove spyware, software that monitors a person's computer habits, slows down computers, triggers pop-up ads and worse.

Microsoft began offering free programs this year to remove viruses and spyware. It plans to eventually charge for more sophisticated antivirus tools, and it has said it may one day charge for spyware removal products as well.

TRUSTe, the business community's guarantor of Internet privacy, abruptly ended its relationship with the company operating FreeiPods.com and other Web sites, alleging unspecified violations of privacy promises to consumers.

TRUSTe said Gratis Internet LLC of Washington no longer could display on any of its Internet properties the industry's broadly recognized seal intended to assure consumers that a Web site complies with privacy-protection guidelines.

It was the first such revocation in at least two years under the industry's own regulatory program. "It is rare," said Carolyn Hodge, a spokeswoman for TRUSTe in San Francisco. "It is really a last resort for us."

Officials from Gratis Internet could not be reached for comment. Gratis runs several Web sites that purport to offer free products, from condoms to iPod music players, in exchange for customers' agreement to accept trial offers from other companies and refer friends to the sites.

Internal documents made public in an Australian court indicate that it's not just consumers who get annoyed by programs that install with the Kazaa file-swapping software.

Employees of the company that owns Kazaa Media Desktop hate using the program because the accompanying software can slow their computers, the documents say.

Like many free programs, Kazaa comes packaged with adware for delivering advertisements to users. Many adware programs have been blamed for slowing down systems and causing some to crash.

Phil Morle, director of technology for Kazaa owner Sharman Networks, wrote that Kazaa needs to be careful with how much adware it bundles.

"It is reasonable that we show ads in order to create our free software," he wrote, "but I do not believe it is reasonable to place a user in a position where this free software will also make their machine sluggish."

He added later: "Consider how many people that work for Sharman Networks and its partners . . . hate installing Kazaa on their machines."

The document became public as part of a trial in Sydney in which Australia's recording industry has charged 10 companies and individuals behind Kazaa, including Sharman Networks, with copyright breaches and other offenses.

First there were ring tones. Then came ringbacks. Now a San Francisco company, Phonebites, is betting that Razzes - silly sound effects inserted into conversations - will be the next cell phone craze.

By allowing cell phone users to spike conversations with the sound of a baby crying or a Jerky Boys audio clip, Phonebites is hoping that its Razz software will open a new avenue in mobile entertainment.

For now, Razzes are limited mainly to generic sounds like a bugle call, a shriek or an animal noise. They are available either by downloading Razzes to a cell phone from the mobile software site Handango (www.Handango.com) or with the purchase of a hands-free headset with the sound effects built in. The headset, with a suggested price of $15, is sold through Sprint PCS (www.sprintpcsaccessories.com) Phonebites (www.phonebites.comq) and other Web sites, and Cricket Wireless stores.

Phonebites says it has sold more than 10,000 of the headsets, which operate with a variety of phones. But because the Phonebites software was written for the Symbian mobile operating system, Razz downloads are possible only to Nokia smart phones. The company is developing a new downloadable version for Verizon Wireless customers that is expected by summer. A set of 10 themed Razzes on Handango sells for $2 to $5.

By year's end, the company says, it expects to offer hundreds of new sound bites, and it will allow users to compile their own Razz sets on the Phonebites Web site. Guy Kawasaki, chairman of Garage Technology Ventures, an investor in the company, said the concept was "arguably more cool" than ring tones. To play a sound, however, might involve a menu of selections and hitting the corresponding button on the keypad. (Razzes also can be set to play automatically when a call is placed or received.)

Seamus McAteer, a senior analyst at M: Metrics, a mobile market data company, noted that with ring tones, on the other hand, "no learning has to happen."

Readers with questions or comments about tech news of the day can submit them for Times personal technology editor Dave Gussow at the Times' Talkback site (www.sptimes.com/talkback)

[Last modified February 11, 2005, 11:45:04]