Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is acquiring enterprise rights management (ERM) vendor Liquid Machines.

Waltham, Mass.-based Liquid Machines has been a longtime vendor in the maturing ERM market. The company specializes in document encryption and content security. Check Point Software sells a variety of unified threat management (UTM) appliances that include network firewall and VPN capabilities. In addition to secure gateways, the company sells endpoint security software which includes antivirus, antispyware and full disk encryption. The company also sells policy management software.

Executives at Check Point and Liquid Machines have obtained the required government and regulatory approvals and the deal is expected to close immediately. According to the Burton Group, in addition to Liquid Machines, the ERM market consists mainly of Adobe Systems Inc., RSA, the security division of EMC Corp. and GigaTrust. Companies have been moving slowly to adopt the technology because it has a direct effect on end users.

Check Point said the technology would help bolster its full disk encryption, VPN and data loss prevention (DLP) products. The company plans to integrate the technology into a future product suite for secure document sharing.

"We've found Liquid Machines to provide the best technology for end-to-end data security and we are looking forward to having it as part of Check Point's security architecture," Gil Shwed, chairman, founder and chief executive