SEATTLE/NEW YORK:  Intel Corp's surprise $7.7 billion bid for McAfee Inc may trigger more deals as competitors scramble for a piece of the rapidly growing software security sector.

Technology giants Oracle Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp and EMC Corp – which are all looking to expand the "stack" of hardware and software they offer corporate clients – could move to counter Intel's emergence.

That puts the spotlight on the world's biggest software security company, Symantec Corp, and a number of smaller companies such as Checkpoint Systems Inc Sourcefire Inc, Websense Inc and SafeNet.

"We're in the early stages of a major consolidation in software, particularly in security," said FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives. "This deal speaks to the convergence of hardware and software, which is becoming increasingly more important as the industry consolidates."

The larger tech companies are all moving towards offering big-spending corporate clients an integrated range of products and services to help them manage networks and data. Security is now a critical part of that offering, making expert providers attractive targets.

The push to diversify has triggered a wave of consolidation in the tech sector. Earlier this month, Dell Inc agreed to buy data storage company 3PAR Inc for $1.15 billion. Last month SAP AG bought Sybase for $5.8 billion and Hewlett-Packard bought smartphone-maker Palm for $1.2 billion.

Symantec itself has been on the acquisition trail. In June, it bought PGP Corporation and GuardianEdge, two privately held companies focusing on email and data encryption, for an undisclosed sum. This month, it closed its deal to buy Verisign Inc's payment authentication unit for about $1.3 billion.

Symantec shares jumped 6.2 percent on Thursday, giving it a market value of around $10 billion.

Intel's deal for McAfee adds to what is turning into an unusually active August for M&A activity. Deals worth nearly $90 billion have been announced this week alone, making it the largest week since August of 2006, according to Thomson Reuters data.