Check Point

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Type	Public NASDAQ-100 component
Traded as	NASDAQ: CHKP
Industry	Security software Computer hardware
Founded	Ramat Gan, Israel (1993)
Headquarters	Tel Aviv, Israel
Key people	Gil Shwed, Founder, Chairman & CEO Marius Nacht, Founder
Products	FireWall-1, VPN-1, UTM-1, Check Point Integrity, Intrusion prevention systems, Endpoint, security, Security appliances, Web Application Security
Revenue	US$ $1.246 billion (2011)
Net income	US$ $543 million (2011)
Employees	2,372 (2012)[1]
Subsidiaries	ZoneAlarm, SofaWare, Easy2comply
Website	www.checkpoint.com

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is an international provider of software and combined hardware and software products for IT security, including network security, endpoint security, data security and security management.

As of 2012^[update] had approximately 2,700 employees worldwide. The company's has development centers in Israel, California (ZoneAlarm), Sweden (Former Protect Data development centre), and Belarus. The company has offices in the United States, in San Carlos, California and in Dallas, Texas, and in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

History

Check Point was established in Ramat-Gan, Israel in 1993, by Gil Shwed (Chairman and CEO as of 2012^[update]), Marius Nacht (Vice Chairman as of 2012^[update]) and Shlomo Kramer (who left Check Point in 2003). Shwed had the initial idea for the company’s core technology known as stateful inspection, which became the foundation for the company's first product, FireWall-1; soon afterwards they also developed one of the world’s first VPN products, VPN-1.^[2] Shwed developed the idea while serving in the Israel Defense Forces, where he worked on securing classified networks. ^[3][4]

Initial funding of US$400,000 was provided by venture capital fund BRM Group.^[5]

In 1994 Check Point signed an OEM agreement with Sun Microsystems,^[2] followed by a distribution agreement with HP in 1995.^[6] The same year, the U.S. head office was established in Redwood City, California.

By February 1996 the company was named worldwide firewall market leader by IDC, with a market share of 40 percent.^{[7][dead link]} In June 1996 Check Point raised $67 million from its initial public offering on NASDAQ.^[8]

In 1998 Check Point established a partnership with Nokia, which bundled Check Point's Software with Nokia's computer Network Security Appliances.^[9]

During the first decade of the 21st century Check Point started acquiring other IT security companies, acquiring Nokia's network security business unit in 2009.^[10]

Products

Check Point offers the following primary products:

• Network Security — Check Point's core business has historically focused on network security components including Firewall, IPsec VPN, Mobile Access, Intrusion Prevention, Antivirus, Anti-spam, URL filtering, Data Loss Prevention and Application Control. These products are deployed as software on x86-based hardware made by third parties including Crossbeam and Hewlett-Packard, or by Check Point(Safe@Office, UTM-1 Edge, UTM-1, Power-1, IP Appliances, and Integrated Appliance Solutions platforms).

• Virtualization Security — The Security Gateway VE product for virtual environments, which runs on VMware ESX and ESXi, secures virtual machines and applications via either hypervisor integration using the VMSafe API, or as a VMware network appliance. A separate product called VPN Power-1 VSX can host multiple virtual security gateways on a single machine.

• Data Security — VPNs, access controls, and the DLP security gateway secure data-in-motion and data-in-use. Check Point Document Security protects data-in-use. Full Disk Encryption, Media Encryption and Port Control secure data-at-rest on endpoints.

• Endpoint Security — a single security agent that combines firewall, antivirus, anti-spyware, full disk encryption, removable media encryption, protection of I/O ports such as USB, network access control, and a VPN client. The security policies for networked endpoints can be centrally managed from a single location via the Endpoint Policy Management Software Blade product.^{[citation needed]}

• Mobile Security — Check Point Mobile Access software provides secure access to corporate resources via a SSL VPN portal for devices such as laptops, mobile phones, and tablet PCs. The Check Point GO USB device provides a secure virtual desktop for Microsoft Windows machines, allowing remote access of the corporate network via a VPN connection, and has encrypted storage.^{[citation needed]}

• Security Management — Allows administrators to manage events, set policy and apply protections across the entire security infrastructure from a single interface. Based on the Software Blade architecture, with 11 management software blades including event analysis, correlation, multi-domain security management, and device provisioning.

Acquisitions

• SofaWare Technologies, in January 2002 (partial acquisition).^[11]
• Zone Labs, makers of the ZoneAlarm personal firewall software, in 2003, for $205 million in cash and shares.^[12]
• Protect Data, the holding company for PointSec Mobile Technologies, in a cash deal valued at $586m in late 2006.^[13] Prior to their acquisition by Check Point, Protect Data acquired Reflex Software.^[14]
• NFR security, an intrusion prevention system developer, for $20 million in late 2006, following its failed plan to acquire the larger IPS vendor Sourcefire.^[15]
• Nokia Security Appliances division was acquired in April 2009.^[10]
• Liquid Machines, a data security startup company based in Boston, was acquired in June 2010.^[16]
• Dynasec, a provider of enterprise governance, risk management, and compliance products, was acquired in November 2011. Dynasec offers a Web-based enterprise application, branded as Easy2comply, for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, Basel II compliance, operational risk management, information security management, HIPAA compliance, and internal audit management.^[17]

In 2005, Check Point tried to acquire intrusion prevention system developers Sourcefire for $225 million,^[18] but later withdrew its offer after it became clear US authorities (C.F.I.U.S) would try to block the acquisition.^[19]

SofaWare legal battle

SofaWare Technologies was founded in 1999, as a cooperation between Check Point and SofaWare's founders, Adi Ruppin and Etay Bogner, with the purpose of extending Check Point from the enterprise market to the small business, consumer and branch office market. SofaWare's co-founder Adi Ruppin said that his company wanted to make the technology simple to use and affordable, and to lift the burden of security management from end users while adding some features.^[20] In 2001 SofaWare began selling firewall appliances under the SofaWare S-Box brand;^[21] in 2002 the company started selling the Safe@Office and Safe@Home line of security appliances, under the Check Point brand.^[20] By the fourth quarter of 2002 sales of SofaWare's Safe@Office firewall/VPN appliances had increased greatly, and SofaWare held the #1 revenue position in the worldwide firewall/VPN sub-$490 appliance market, with a 38% revenue market share.^[22]

Relations between Check Point and the SofaWare founders went sour after the company acquisition in 2002.^[11] In 2004 Etay Bogner, co-founder of SofaWare, sought court approval to file a shareholder derivative suit, claiming Check Point was not transferring funds to SofaWare as required for its use of SofaWare's products and technology.^[11] His derivative suit was ultimately successful, and Check Point was ordered to pay SofaWare 13 million shekels for breach of contract.^[11] In 2006 the Tel Aviv District Court Judge ruled that Bogner SofaWare could sue Check Point by proxy for $5.1 million in alleged damage to SofaWare.^[23] Bogner claimed that Check Point, which owned 60% of Sofaware, had behaved belligerently, and withheld monies due for use of SofaWare technology and products^[23] Check Point appealed the ruling, but lost.^[24]

In 2009 the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that a group of founders of SofaWare, which includes Bogner, had veto power over any decision of SofaWare.^[11] The court ruled that the three founders could exercise their veto power only as a group and by majority rule.^[11]

In 2011 Check Point settled all litigation relating to SofaWare. As part of the settlement it acquired the SofaWare shares held by Bogner and Ruppin, and began a process of acquiring the remaining shares, resulting in SofaWare becoming a wholly owned subsidiary.^[25]

See also

Companies portal

• ZoneAlarm
• VPN-1
• Check Point Abra
• Silicon Wadi

References

Companies of the NASDAQ-100 index   Activision Blizzard Adobe Akamai Alexion Pharmaceuticals Altera Amazon.com Amgen Analog Devices Apple Applied Materials Autodesk ADP Avago Baidu Bed Bath & Beyond Biogen Idec BMC Software Broadcom Catamaran Corporation C.H. Robinson CA Technologies Celgene Cerner Check Point Cisco Citrix Cognizant Comcast Costco Dell Dentsply DirecTV Discovery Communications Dollar Tree eBay Equinix Expedia Expeditors International Express Scripts F5 Networks Facebook Fastenal Fiserv Fossil Garmin Gilead Sciences Google Henry Schein Intel Intuit Intuitive Surgical KLA Tencor Liberty Global Liberty Interactive Life Technologies Linear Technology Mattel Maxim Integrated Microchip Technology Micron Technology Microsoft Mondelēz International Monster Beverage Mylan NetApp News Corporation Nuance Communications Nvidia O'Reilly Auto Parts Oracle Paccar Paychex Perrigo Priceline.com Qualcomm Randgold Resources Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Ross Stores SanDisk SBA Communications Seagate Sears Sigma-Aldrich Sirius XM Radio Staples Starbucks Starz Inc. Stericycle Symantec Texas Instruments Verisk Analytics Vertex Pharmaceuticals Viacom Virgin Media Vodafone Western Digital Whole Foods Market Wynn Resorts Xilinx Yahoo!

External links

• Corporate website