A good year for tech security firms

Tech security firms are emerging as big winners in this recession. Despite the fact that it's a very bad year for just about everyone,  there have been 55 acquisitions of security firms so far in 2009, a pace that could surpass 2008's 120 security company acquisitions, according to America's Growth Capital.

"There is a surge of activity going on," Ben Howe, CEO at AGC told USAToday. Antivirus giant McAfee announced last week that it will acquire Solidcore, maker of security systems for ATMs and cash registers, for $33 million cash.

There are plenty of reasons for the flurry of activity. Prices are attractive because venture capitalists can no longer afford to go public with companies they snapped up a few years ago, Jay Beaghan, managing director for security acquisitions at Imperial Capital, tells USAToday. And the need for better security continues to increase as hackers proliferate and cybercriminals discover new ways to infect email and steal data.

"Hackers and bad guys continue to innovate," said Beaghan. "This supports an ongoing level of investment activity in the sector."

For more on the IT security boom:
- check out this USAToday.com article

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