Features

PGP Corp. acquires encryption product lines from Network Associates 

SAN JOSE — PGP Corp., a newly formed company specializing in message and data storage security, said Monday it has acquired Network Associates Inc.’s “Pretty Good Privacy” encryption product lines and plans to update the technology. 

Pretty Good Privacy, which was first released in 1991 as free software by programmer Phil Zimmermann, is commonly used to scramble e-mail messages to ensure contents are not read while in transit. Network Associates acquired the commercial rights in 1997. 

But Network Associates stopped selling its PGP products last year after corporate sales did not meet expectations and the company decided to focus on its core computer security products. 

Under the agreement announced Monday, PGP Corp. bought the following products: PGP Mail, PGP File, PGP Disk and PGP Admin software products for Windows-based computers, PGP Corporate Desktop for Macintosh, PGP Keyserver for Windows and Solaris, PGP Mobile for handheld operating systems and the PGP SDK software development kit. 

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Network Associates retained some products built with PGPsdk, including the McAfee E-Business Server, McAfee Desktop Firewall and McAfee VPN Client. 

Terms of the deal, which was finalized July 26, were not disclosed. 

Agilent posts wider loss in fiscal third quarter 

SAN JOSE — Agilent Technologies Inc., a maker of test and measurement equipment, reported a larger-than-expected third-quarter loss Monday because of weak demand and disruptions caused by the installation of a companywide management system. 

For the three months ended July 31, the company lost $228 million, or 49 cents per share, compared with a loss of $225 million, or 49 cents a share, in the same period last year. 

Excluding one-time items, the company lost $143 million, or 31 cents per share, compared with a loss of $101 million, or 22 cents per share, in the same period last year. 

Third-quarter sales totaled $1.4 billion, a 24 percent decrease over the $1.8 billion reported last year. 

Analysts were expecting a loss of 15 cents per share on sales of $1.5 billion, according to a survey by Thomson First Call.