McAfee (NYSE: MFE) is the No. 2 player in the security software market. But the company's CEO, Dave DeWalt, definitely wants to be No. 1. In fact, he's been putting together a string of acquisitions to pump things up.

The latest deal came this week: McAfee purchased Secure Computing Corp. (NASDAQ: SCUR) for $465 million. On news of the deal, the company's shares spiked 23% to $5.58.

Secure Computing itself is an amalgam of a variety of acquisitions. For the most part, the company's products help deal with e-mail intrusions and network security. However, Secure Computing has had difficulties integrating its deals. As a result, the company has missed expectations on several earnings releases, which put lots of pressure on the stock price.

For some more insight on McAfee's latest deal I turned to Paul Roberts, Senior Analyst of Enterprise Security at The 451 Group, who said:

"Consolidation has been a long time coming in the enterprise security market. Despite persistent rumors that it might be acquired by a much bigger player, McAfee shows all intentions of staying independent and being one of the survivors, rather than road kill, as the enterprise security market consolidates. In the last twelve months, the company has made bold bets on data encryption and anti data leakage. This deal re-introduces McAfee as a player in the network security space after it was forced to downsize a few years back. We're interested to see how the company knits together the disparate technologies it has acquired."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Amgen, Inc (AMGN), Secure Computing Corp (SCUR), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Level 3 Communications (LVLT) were some of today's more notable downgrades:

• UBS downgraded shares of Amgen Inc (NASDAQ: AMGN) to Reduce from Neutral as the firm believes most Medicare carriers will drop reimbursement for Aranesp in certain types of anemia due to safety concerns.

• Goldman Sachs cut Secure Computing Corp (NASDAQ: SCUR) to Sell from Neutral, citing valuation.

• Thomas Weisel believes Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) will have a difficult time regaining lost channel share from Intel (INTC) without additional price cuts, downgrading shares to Market Weight to Overweight.

• Buckingham cut Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT) to Accumulate from Strong Buy on valuation.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Edison International (NYSE: EIX) to Hold from Buy.

• Wachovia downgraded shares of Countrywide Financial Corp (NYSE: CFC) to Underperform from Market Perform on concerns that subprime weakness has spread to other sectors of the residential mortgage market.

• Ferris Baker Watts downgraded shares of Comstock Homebuilding (NASDAQ: CHCI) to Hold from Buy to reflect the uncertainty regarding the company's lender relationships and homebuilding market outlook.

• Citigroup downgraded shares of StanCorp Financial Group (NYSE: SFG) to Hold from Buy on valuation and recommends swapping money into Assurant, Inc (AIZ).

• JP Morgan cut AngloGold Ashanti Ltd (NYSE: AU) to Underweight from Neutral.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).