Cybersecurity mergers and acquisitions. PHOTO: Cybercrime Magazine.

Cybersecurity M&A Report, Vol. 4, No. 2: Buyers Include Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, CyberArk, Rapid7

Other deals cut by IBM, Fortress Investment Group, VPN Technologies, Thoma Bravo, Zoom, Verizon, and Investcorp Technology Partners

– John P. Mello Jr.

Northport, N.Y. – Jun. 30, 2020

Cybersecurity Ventures tracks M&A deal flow covering startups, emerging players, and the largest tech vendors. Read on for activity in the most recent quarter. 

June

Jun. 30. Carrick Capital Partners, a venture capital firm in San Francisco, announces acquisition from WeWork of the Flatiron School, an operator of technical bootcamps. The school, headquartered in New York City, graduates students with high-demand skills in software engineering, data science, UX/UI design, and cybersecurity. WeWork, also located in New York, is a real estate company that provides shared workspaces for technology startups. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Jun. 24. Atos, a digital transformation company headquartered in Paris, France, announces agreement to acquire Paladion, a provider of managed detection and response services located in Reston, Va. Atos Senior Executive Vice President Pierre Barnabé says Paladion’s cloud-native technology will be an asset to his company’s expansion strategies in cybersecurity and cloud solutions and allow its customers to accelerate their business transformation efforts. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Jun. 23. Siemens, a multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Munich, Germany, signs agreement to acquire UltraSoC Technologies, of Cambridge, UK. UltraSoC is a provider of instrumentation and analytics solutions that put intelligent monitoring, cybersecurity, and functional safety capabilities into the core hardware of system-on-chip processors. Siemens says the acquisition will enable it to create a unified data-driven infrastructure that can enhance product quality, safety and cybersecurity and provide a comprehensive solution to help its semiconductor industry customers overcome key pain points in their operations, including manufacturing defects, software and hardware bugs, device early-failure and wear-out, functional safety, and malicious attacks. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Jun. 22. Microsoft, a multinational software and cloud services company based in Redmond, Wash., announces intent to acquire CyberX, an IoT security company located in Waltham, Mass. It says acquisition will complement its existing Azure IoT security capabilities and allow customers to see a digital map of thousands of devices across a factory floor or within a building and gather information about their asset profile and vulnerabilities. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Jun. 16. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions,  a provider of mission-critical engineering, IT services, and war fighter solutions headquartered in San Diego, announces intent to acquire ASC Signal, of Plano, Texas,  from Communications & Power Industries for $35 million in cash. CPI has to sell ASC as part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that enabled CPI to acquire SATCOM Technologies, which is owned by General Dynamics. According to the DOJ, the sale of ASC was necessary to preserve competition for large satellite ground station antennas for geostationary satellites in the United States. Phil Carrai, president of Kratos’ Space, Training and Cybersecurity Division, says the acquisition of ASC will help expand the company’s business, especially in the U.S. government and national security sectors.

Jun. 16. Comcen, of Swansea in the United Kingdom, a hardware, software, consumables, consulting, and services provider, announces “seven figure” acquisition of Pisys.net, an IT support company, also of Swansea. Comcen CEO Dave Mathews explains, “Recent industry demand has been for technology that enables business mobility and digital collaboration, and with this demand comes the need for digital security and support, so bringing Pisys.net on-board completes the package of services we can offer customers.”

Jun. 15. IBM, a multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, N.Y., signs a definitive agreement to acquire Spanugo, of Santa Clara, Calif., a provider of cloud cybersecurity posture management solutions. “With the acquisition of Spanugo, we have taken another major step in advancing IBM’s differentiated capabilities in security and compliance for our enterprise clients, including those in highly regulated industries,” says Big Blue’s Senior Vice President Howard Boville. “Bringing Spanugo’s technology into our financial services public cloud will help provide our clients with evidence of their ongoing compliance, in real time.” Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Jun. 10. Fortress Investment Group, an investment management company headquartered in New York City, enters into definitive agreement to acquire Finjan Holdings, a cybersecurity patent licenser located in East Palo Alto, Calif., in a stock buyout valued at $43.9 million. Finjan says it will retain its brand and business model following completion of the deal. “We believe that this transaction strengthens our ability to continue executing our business model, particularly while facing unpredictable timelines in the court system and a challenging macro-economic environment,” says Finjan President and CEO Phil Hartstein. “The acquisition enables Finjan to continue to pursue our licensing mission and expand our reputation and credibility on policy-related initiatives, while providing us greater resources and opportunities as a Fortress portfolio company.”

Jun. 8. VPN Technologies, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, offers letter of intent to acquire two French VPN providers, Tunnello and Pelgo Systems, for 350,000 euros. VPN Tech estimates the acquisitions will add 20,000 to 30,000 Canadian dollars per month to its cash flow and give it a solid foundation in the fast-developing European market.

Jun. 4. NICE Actimize, of Hoboken, N.J., an autonomous financial crime management company, enters into definitive agreement to acquire Guardian Analytics, of Mountain View, Calif., an omnichannel fraud prevention solution provider. With the acquisition, NICE is taking a significant step toward the future of managing financial crime, NICE CEO Craig Costigan says. He adds, “With criminals seeking to exploit the current environment, we need to make sure financial institutions and consumers are protected in a way that’s cost-effective and intuitive. The acquisition of Guardian Analytics brings together the unique combination of proven expertise, best-in-class innovation, and the power of the cloud, presenting a major opportunity for accelerated growth.”

Jun. 2. ProArch, of Atlanta, a provider of cloud consulting, data platform, data science, and product engineering services, acquires iV4, of Rochester, N.Y., a provider of managed, networking, cloud architecture, and cybersecurity services. iV4 CEO Michael Spoont says, “This big step is about growth and the next generation of iV4. By joining together with ProArch, we’ll form a powerful force in cloud consulting, cybersecurity, data science and product engineering.” Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Jun. 2. Wall Street Journal reports Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm headquartered in Chicago, agrees to acquire Exostar, a provider of secure cloud collaboration solutions located in Herdon, Va., for an estimated $100 million.

Jun. 2. Thycotic, of Washington, D.C., a maker of enterprise password management software, announces acquisition of Onion ID, of Hayward, Calif., an access control solutions maker. “With the addition of Onion ID,” says Thycotic President and CEO James Legg, “we are now able to implement fine-tuned Role Based Access Controls across any web-based application, IaaS console, and cloud-hosted database, while providing flexible multi-factor authentication that gives security leaders a significantly easier way to ensure secure access paths for remote employees.” Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Jun. 1. AGC Networks Limited, of Mumbai, India, a global technology integrator, announces intention to acquire Fujisoft, an IT solutions provider based in Japan, through an indirect subsidiary, Black Box Holdings headquartered in Lawrence, Pa. According to the companies, the deal will enhance the company’s current solution portfolio across cloud computing and virtualization, cybersecurity, managed services, data center, and collaboration solutions. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. 

May

May 28. Cisco, a global technology and services company based in San Jose, Calif., announces intent to acquire ThousandEyes, a cloud and internet intelligence platform maker headquartered in San Francisco. Cisco says combining its strength in network and application performance with ThousandEyes’ visibility into the internet will give customers an end-to-end view into the digital delivery of applications and services over the internet, allowing them to pinpoint deficiencies and improve network and application performance across enterprise and cloud networks. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

May 22. Barron’s reports an increased need for cybersecurity has motivated Smarsh, of Portland, Ore., a compliance and regtech firm backed by K1 investment management, to acquire Entreda, a cybersecurity compliance and risk analytics software company located in Santa Clara, Calif. It says Entreda will operate as a stand-alone subsidiary of Smarsh and continue to be led by Sid Yenamandra, CEO and co-founder. It adds no job cuts are expected. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

May 20. Forescout Technologies, of San Jose, Calif., a device visibility and control company, files a lawsuit against Advent International, a global private equity firm based in Boston, stemming from Advent’s backing out of a deal to acquire Forescout for $1.9 billion. Advent says Forescout failed to maintain operations and financial resources as required under the agreement, which was signed in February, before COVID-19 shut down the world economy. Forescout counters that the “failure to maintain operations and financial resources” clause excludes pandemics, and Advent knew the coronavirus was spreading when it signed the deal.

May 14. Venafi, a key and certificate security company headquartered in Salt Lake City, announces definitive agreement to acquire Jetstack, of London, a cloud-native infrastructure company. Venafi CEO Jeff Hudson says acquisition will help its customers accelerate the development process while simultaneously securing applications against attack. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

May 13. VMware, a cloud and virtualization software and services company headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., announces intent to acquire Octarine, of Sunnyvale, Calif., maker of a security platform for Kubernetes applications. VMware says Octarine’s technology will be integrated into another one of its holdings, the Carbon Black Cloud, which will enable VMware to further expand its intrinsic security strategy to containers and Kubernetes environments. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

May 13. CyberArk, of Newton, Mass., a provider of privileged access management solutions, announces acquisition of Idaptive Holdings, of Santa Clara, Calif., a provider of multi-layer protection to secure privileged account information from data breaches, for $70 million in cash. CyberArk says the acquisition will help the company dramatically reduce risk by delivering a comprehensive artificial Intelligence-based, security-first approach to managing identities that is adaptive and context-aware, and architected on the principles of Zero Trust and least privilege access.

May 7. Zoom, a unified comunications platform located in San Jose, Calif., announces acquisition of Keybase, of New York City, a provider of end-to-end encryption for chat, file-sharing, and code hosting. “This acquisition marks a key step for Zoom as we attempt to accomplish the creation of a truly private video communications platform that can scale to hundreds of millions of participants, while also having the flexibility to support Zoom’s wide variety of uses,” CEO Eric S. Yuan wrote in a company blog. “Our goal is to provide the most privacy possible for every use case, while also balancing the needs of our users and our commitment to preventing harmful behavior on our platform. Keybase’s experienced team will be a critical part of this mission.” Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

April

Apr. 28. Rapid7, of Boston, a security data and analytics solutions provider, announces intent to acquire DivvyCloud, of Arlington, Va., a provider of automated protection of cloud and container environments from misconfigurations, policy violations, and threats, for $145 million in cash and stock. Lee Weiner, Rapid7’s chief innovation officer, explains in a company blog that customers are struggling with securing their cloud environments. “DivvyCloud is a company that has been focusing on solving this problem for almost a decade,” he writes.

Apr. 22. Palo Alto Networks, of Santa Clara, Calif., a multinational cybersecurity company, announces completion of $420 million cash acquisition of CloudGenix, of San Jose, Calif., a maker of software-defined, wide-area networks. Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora says, “CloudGenix has shown tremendous vision for how enterprises need to shift their security posture in today’s cloud-scale, distributed environments. The integration of our platforms into a best-in-class SASE offering will benefit not only our combined customer base, but also the industry at large as it continues to undergo network and security transformation.”

Apr. 22. Wayside Technology Group, of Shrewsbury, N.J., an international software marketer, agrees to acquire Interwork Technologies, a computer and network security company located in Toronto. Interwork is expected to bring scale to Wayside, with more than 20 new vendor partners, a network of approximately 2,500 value-added resellers, and an incremental increase in annual gross billings of approximately 10 percent. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Apr. 16. Verizon, a major U.S. telecommunications carrier based in New York City, enters into agreement to acquire Bluejeans Network, of San Jose, Calif., maker of a video conferencing and event platform. Verizon says its 5G roadmap will be leveraged across the Bluejeans platform, allowing for secure, real-time interactions within telemedicine, distance learning, field service, and other high growth areas. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Apr. 16. Auriga, of Bari, Italy, a proprietary software maker with a focus on banking, announces acquisition of Lookwise Device Manager, a modular security platform and cybersecurity business unit, from S21sec, a cybersecurity services company located in San Sebastian, Spain. Auriga CEO Vincenzo Fiore explains, “Ever growing targeted attacks on self-service banking infrastructure are hugely disruptive and undermine trust in digital banking services. By making LDM an integral component of our own software portfolio we can significantly build the most effective cyber risk management and security capabilities for our clients that protect growth in digital financial services across all channels.” Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Apr. 15. Mellanox Technologies, a provider of high-performance, end-to-end smart interconnect solutions located in Sunnyvale, Calif., announces definitive agreement to acquire Titan IC, of Belfast, UK, a developer of network intelligence and security technology to accelerate search and big data analytics in data center applications. “Our customers will benefit from the deep analytics and enhanced security that will be delivered by the integration of our best-in-class Ethernet and InfiniBand products and world-leading deep packet inspection and analytics technologies from Titan IC,” says Mellanox CEO and President Eyal Waldman. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Apr. 9. Zscaler, a global, cloud-based information security company located in San Jose, Calif., announces intent to acquire Cloudneeti, of Seattle, a provider of services for finding cloud application configuration errors. Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudry says Cloudneeti’s technology will complement the capabilities of his company’s cloud security products. “Whether caused by SaaS applications being configured incorrectly or a developer accidentally misconfiguring a new public cloud application, these preventable data protection lapses are behind some of the biggest breaches in history,” he adds. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Apr. 9. Investcorp Technology Partners, a technology group headquartered in Manama, Bahrain, agrees to acquire Avira, of Tettnang, Germany, a multinational, cybersecurity software company, for $180 million. “With our long history of working with cybersecurity, IoT and data-driven businesses, Investcorp is looking forward to supporting Avira’s targeted growth trajectory and expansion plans,” says Gilbert Kamieniecky, managing director and head of Investcorp’s technology private equity business.

Apr. 9. ICS, of Ithaca, N.Y., a technology management services provider, announces acquisition of Brightworks Computer Consulting, also of Ithaca. “Due to the ever-changing information technology landscape and the growing cybersecurity needs, we wanted to find a partner that could support our customers with a higher level of maturity and serviceability than we could achieve in the near future,” says John Guttridge, founder of Brightworks. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Apr. 7. Accenture, a professional services company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, announces acquisition of Revolutionary Security, of Blue Bell, Pa., a cybersecurity services provider. Kelly Bissell, who leads Accenture’s security division globally, says, “The acquisition of Revolutionary Security is another demonstration of our continued commitment to invest in areas to keep our clients safe from cyber threats.” Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Apr. 6. Cisco, a global technology and services company based in San Jose, Calif., announces intention to acquire Fluidmesh Networks, of Brooklyn, N.Y., a maker of products to support on-the-move, mission-critical applications. According to Cisco, the acquisition will extend its industrial wireless offerings to industries with on-the-move assets and applications in situations where reliable backhaul is mission-critical. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Apr. 3. Raytheon Technologies Corporation, headquartered in Waltham, Mass., announces completion of merger of equals of Raytheon, one of the largest aerospace and defense companies in the world, and United Technologies, of Hartford, Conn., also an aerospace company. The companies begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RTX.

M&A Report Archives

John P. Mello, Jr. is a freelance writer specializing in business and technology subjects, including consumer electronics, business computing and cyber security.