Symantec began 2006 pretty much how it left 2005, offering to acquire a smaller company to bolster its enterprise software portfolio.

The new target is IMlogic, Inc., the leader in instant messaging (IM) security software for businesses, which security specialist Symantec bought for an undisclosed sum to boost real-time communications protection for its customers.

Privately-held IMlogic's products help enterprises ensure control and secure IM networks at a time when compliance with regulatory and corporate governance policies is a must.

IMlogic's IM Manager manages, secures and archives all IM traffic with certified support for public and enterprise IM networks, including AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber and others. The IMlogic Real-Time Threat Protection System (RTTPS) is designed to prevent IM virus, worm, and malware outbreaks before they occur.

IM is already a fixture among consumers, who are sending more than 12 billion messages daily -- more than even e-mail messages, according to IDC figures.

But IM technology is increasingly becoming more popular among business users for real-time communications. IMLogic is also valuable because the market is evolving beyond basic messaging and file sharing. IM networks are increasingly being used in voice over IP (VoIP) services for free calling between clients.

But rampant adoption of communications technologies such as IM, e-mail and VoIP can also lead to breeding grounds for malicious threats, hack attacks and viruses, Symantec said in a statement. This is why Symantec believes IMLogic is a lucrative business to bolster its security software offerings.

"With the best-of-breed instant messaging management and compliance software from IMlogic, Symantec will be the first and only vendor to offer a complete security and archiving solution to help customers manage all their messaging requirements," said Enrique Salem, senior vice president of Security Products and Solutions, Symantec.

The deal also makes sense because Symantec and IMlogic have already partnered on many fronts. Symantec's Enterprise Vault, the e-mail and content archiving offering from Symantec, has been integrated with IMlogic's IM Manager since 2002 to address regulatory compliance for many of the world's enterprises.

Moreover, Symantec Security Response has had a longstanding relationship with the IMlogic Threat Center, and research analysts from both companies have collaborated to address the exponential growth of IM and P2P threats on the Web.

Should the deal succeed, IMlogic's threat detection and remediation for IM will be integrated into Symantec's early warning and response system and will augment the existing capabilities of Symantec Security Response.

The deal is par for the course for Symantec as it aims to improve its position as the largest security software maker in the world by acquiring a handful of security-oriented companies to fill out corporate gaps.

In 2005, these buys included BindView, WholeSecurity and Sygate Technologies.