1998: Martin Roesch makes a program called Snort, which "sniffs out" network hackers and viruses, available for free online.
2001: Roesch founds Sourcefire in his Carroll County living room in order to produce a commercial version of Snort.
October 2005: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., an Israeli company, announces plans to acquire Sourcefire for $225 million.
March 2006: Check Point abandons the acquisition after a federal panel begins investigating the deal. Federal officials opposed the acquisition, fearing it could result in the exposure of the government's network practices.
October 2006: Sourcefire applies to list its common stock on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FIRE.
March 2007: Sourcefire's stock debuts and closes at $15.49, up 3.2 percent over the IPO price.
February 2008: CEO E. Wayne Jackson III announced his departure from the company after fourth-quarter profit dropped 59 percent.
June 2008: Barracuda Networks Inc. offers to buy Sourcefire for $206 million. Sourcefire rebuffs the bid.
July 2013: Cisco announces it is acquiring Sourcefire for $2.7 billion.
Source: Baltimore Sun archives