According to a report by information technology news site Techcrunch, Intel Corp had acquired security company Sensory Networks. The USD20 billion acquisition was reportedly a strategic one for Intel as it intended to extend its capabilities in security.

According to company co-founder and current chief executive of Freelancer.com Matt Barrie, Sensory Networks was initially founded as a hardware company in 2002. The company provided the technology that looks for patterns of software intrusions like spam and malware by mapping networks, Barrie said. The company had already changed its business model from a hardware company to a software firm.

Barrie also added that there is a real challenge in getting the attention of major tech firms like Cisco that Sensory Networks could get value in the integration of security technology. Its consolidation with Intel, of which has a longterm credibility in the software industry, had helped the security company achieved its goal to integrate with a major firm. Its technology currently runs on Intel processors at 160 gigabytes per second. 

Sensory Networks has clients that included McAfee, which incidentally was also another one of Intel's acquisitions at USD7.7 billion. In May, Intel had also acquired a firewall company, Stonesoft, for USD389 million.