15 Oct Cybersecurity M&A Report, Vol. 3, No. 3: Broadcom, VMware, BC Partners, Splunk Cut Billion Dollar Deals
Other big buys executed by Palo Alto Networks, F-Secure, Perspecta, Pensare, Temasek Holdings, Ascential, and Blancco
– Northport, N.Y. – Oct. 1, 2019
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.
September
Sep. 30. KnowBe4, of Tampa Bay, Fla., an information security awareness company, announces the acquisition of Twist and Shout Group, of Leicester, U.K., an employee security training provider. Twist and Shout is known for producing Hollywood-quality training videos. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Sep. 27. BPM, an accounting firm in San Francisco, announces acquisition of Adhere, a security technology company in Fairfield, Calif. BPM says the acquisition will increase its security, compliance, and operations services. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Sep. 22. Blancco Technology Group, of Austin, Texas, a data erasure and mobile diagnostics company, announces acquisition of Tabernus, also of Austin, a data erasure software and hardware company. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Blancco says deal allows it to expand its B2B data erasure software business, as well as add consumer security solutions and integration with Internet of Things technologies, such as Internet-connected televisions, connected cars, smart thermostats, and wearable health-monitoring devices.
Sep. 20. Palo Alto Networks, a global cybersecurity company based in Santa Clara, Calif., announces completion of acquisition of Zingbox, an IoT infrastructure security provider in Mountain View, Calif., for $75 million in cash, excluding purchase price adjustments. Palo Alto says acquisition will allow it to offer customers IoT security with best-in-class visibility and automated in-line prevention.
Sep. 19. HP, a global technology company based in Palo Alto, Calif., announces acquisition of Bromium, an endpoint security company in Cupertino, Calif. HP says acquisition will complement and enhance its existing security platform with hardware enforced application isolation and containment to protect against advanced attacks while providing real-time threat intelligence. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Sep. 18. Etisalat Group, of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, a telecommunications and media services company, announces acquisition of the UAE and Saudi Arabia businesses of Help AG, a network security company in Dubai, UAE. Etisalat says acquisition is part of its plans to diversify operations. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Sep. 17. Two network security companies, Owl Cyber Defense, of Ridgefield, Conn., and Tresys Technology, of Columbia, Md., announce merger. DC Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm in Alexandria, Va., which owns both companies, suggested the merger, according to Jane’s Defence Industry.
Sep. 12. Universal Technology Corporation, of Dayton, Ohio, a provider of scientific, engineering, and technical services to space and defense customers, agrees to merge Advanced Core Concepts, of Warner Robins, Ga., a provider of aviation life-cycle management, cybersecurity, and space mission analysis and risk management tools. The combined companies will provide full life-cycle system support and solutions to the defense, space, and intelligence markets. UTC will convert to a limited liability company, changing its name to Universal Technology Company,
Sep. 4. Cloudera, of Palo Alto, Calif., an enterprise cloud data provider, announces it has agreed to acquire Arcadia Data, of San Mateo, Calif., a provider of cloud-native, AI-powered business intelligence and real-time analytics. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Cloudera says acquisition will accelerate its customers’ time-to-insight from their data. It explains Arcadia’s patent-pending ArcEngine technology enables enterprises to generate insights in use cases like data lakes, cybersecurity, IoT, and customer intelligence.
Sep. 4. Splunk, of San Francisco, a maker of software that monitors and analyzes machine data in real-time for security and IT operations, announces acquisition of Omnition, of Redwood, Calif., a SaaS startup that uses distributed tracing as a means to monitor microservices applications. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Splunk says acquisition will enable its customers to gain more insights into enterprise applications, whether they reside in on-premises data centers or cloud-based applications and infrastructure.
August
Aug. 22. VMware, of Palo Alto, Calif., an enterprise software maker providing cloud and virtualization services, acquires Carbon Black, of Waltham, Mass., a provider of endpoint security, for $2.1 billion. VMware says acquisition will better position company to provide a highly differentiated, intrinsic security cloud to better protect enterprise workloads and clients through big data, behavioral analytics and AI. “The security industry is broken and ineffective with too many fragmented solutions and no cohesive platform architecture,” VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a statement. “By bringing Carbon Black into the VMware family, we are now taking a huge step forward in security and delivering an enterprise-grade platform to administer and protect workloads, applications, and networks.”
Aug. 22. NuMSP, a national Managed Services Provider based in Clifton, N.J., announces acquisition of NTConnections, an MSP in Reston, Va. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. It says the acquisition, the 13th by the company, allows it to enter the Virginia market for IT solutions for small- and mid-sized businesses and advance its strategy to fulfill the IT service needs of SMBs in every major market across the country.
Aug. 21. Splunk, of San Francisco, a maker of software that monitors and analyzes machine data in real-time for security and IT operations, announces acquisition of SignalFx, of San Mateo, maker of a cloud monitoring platform for infrastructure, microservices, and applications, in a deal worth $1.05 billion — 60 percent in cash and 40 percent in Splunk stock. Kenrick Cai, writing for Forbes, noted the acquisition allows Splunk to better compete with leaders in the application performance monitoring market, like Cisco AppDynamics and Dynatrace.
Aug. 21. Cofense, of Leesburg, Va., a maker of phishing defense solutions, announces BlackRock Private Equity Partners, of New York City, has acquired the equity in Cofense of Pamplona Capital Management, of London, U.K. Pamplona was asked to divest itself of its 47 percent interest in Cofense by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment for national security reasons. The majority of Pamplona’s private equity fund is owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman.
Aug. 20. PerimeterX, of San Mateo, Calif., a provider of website protection services, announces acquisition of PageSeal, of Ness Ziona, Israel, developer of a solution to protect sites and users from malicious code injections. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. PerimeterX uses PageSeal technology in its Page Defender product, which blocks unwanted ads and browser extensions from redirecting web visitors away from their intended path and allows them to reach the eCommerce sites where they really want to be.
Aug. 19. VMware, of Palo Alto, Calif., an enterprise software maker providing cloud and virtualization services, announces plans to acquire Veriflow, of San Jose, Calif., a network monitoring company. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. It says the buy will strengthen its capabilities in the pervasive network monitoring, troubleshooting, and verification space. Veriflow’s technology is designed to predict network outages before they occur and identify vulnerabilities before they’re exploited.
Aug. 14. BC Partners, an international investment firm based in London, announces agreement to purchase Presidio, of New York City, a digital infrastructure, cloud, and security solutions provider, for $2.1 billion in cash. “We believe this transaction will provide immediate and substantial value to Presidio stockholders, while providing us with a partner that can add strategic and operational expertise to our business, with a focus on executing our long-term strategy,” Presidio CEO Bob Cagnazzi said in a statement.
Aug. 8. McAfee, of Santa Clara, Calif., a cybersecurity company, announces acquisition of NanoSec, also of Santa Clara, a zero trust cloud workload protection company. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. McAfee says the buy will strengthen its container security capabilities and give its customers the ability to speed up application delivery while enhancing the governance, compliance, and security of their hybrid, multi-cloud deployments.
Aug. 8. Broadcom, of San Jose, Calif., a computer chip maker, announces acquisition of the enterprise business of Symantec, of Mountain View, Calif., a security, storage, and systems management solutions company, for $10.7 billion in cash. The Symantec enterprise business produced $2.3 billion in revenue in the 2019 fiscal year, or about half of the company’s total revenue.
Aug. 8. Temasek Holdings, an investment company in Singapore, has agreed to acquire cryptographic company D’Crypt, also of Singapore, from StarHub, a Singapore telco, for as much as US$72.5 million. Under the deal, StarHub gets $47.1 million, while up to $24.3 million will be paid to D’Crypt’s founding shareholders for meeting certain business and performance milestones.
Aug. 1. Perspecta, of Chantilly, Va., an IT service management company, acquires Knight Point, of Reston, Va., a cloud computing, cybersecurity, digital transformation, and DevSecOps concern, for $250 million. It says the acquisition price represents a single-digit multiple on Knight Point’s expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization expenses on a forward-12 month basis.
July
Jul. 31. Jamf, of Minneapolis, a maker of software for managing Apple devices, announces acquisition of Digita Security, of Delaware, Ohio, a maker of macOS security products. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. It says acquisition will complement its Apple management, authentication, and account management solutions with a security offering to provide a robust suite of capabilities in the Apple enterprise market.
Jul. 29. Atos, of Paris, France, a digital transformation company, announces intent to acquire IDnomic, also in France, a provider of digital identity management infrastructure. It says IDnomic’s expertise in PKI technology, digital trust solutions, and Software as a Service will complement Atos’s existing cybersecurity product offerings,
Jul. 26. Pensare Acquisition Corp., of Atlanta, a special purpose acquisition company, announces acquisition of Computex Technology Solutions, of Houston, an IT asset management company, for $65 million, and an unnamed IT solutions provider for $49.5 million. Computex is a Cisco Gold Quad Master partner across cloud and managed services; collaboration; cybersecurity; and networking.
Jul. 22. Ascential, of London, U.K., a global information company, announces acquisition of a 35 percent interest in Jumpshot, of San Francisco, the marketing analytics arm of cybersecurity company Avast, for $60.5 million. The deal depends on German antitrust approval and the entry by Ascential, Jumpshot, and Avast into a shareholders’ agreement, which would grant a put and call option over an additional 16 percent of Jumpshot’s shares. “Having exclusive access to Jumpshot products is expected to accelerate sales for Edge by Ascential and allow Ascential to build unique products for our customers to drive their success in digital commerce,” CEO Duncan Painter said in a statement.
Jul. 11. Blancco Technology Group, of Austin, Texas, a data erasure and mobile diagnostics company, announces acquisition of Inhance Technology, of Dublin, Ireland, a mobile security concern, for £5.25 million. Blancco says transaction will enable Blancco to strengthen its existing retail capability and further improve its ability to offer and manage full-service mobile device buyback and trade-in programs, and device insurance policies.
Jul. 10. Inpixon, of Palo Alto, Calif., an indoor positioning and analytics company, announces completion of acquisition of Jibestream, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a provider of mapping and location technology. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Inpixon says transaction will further its goal to be a leading provider of indoor mapping and location technology and create an indoor location data platform that will give its users a unique view of their indoor data, from wayfinding, visitor analytics, and marketing campaigns to video camera integration and cybersecurity threat detection.
Jul. 9. Palo Alto Networks, a global cybersecurity company based in Santa Clara, Calif., completes acquisition of Twistlock, of Portland, Ore., a container security company for $410 million. Palo Alto says the acquisition will advance its ability to secure applications throughout the development life cycle. Twistlock will continue to be a standalone product, as well as being incorporated into Palo Alto’s offerings.
Jul. 2. F-Secure, an IT security company in Helsinki, Finland, completes acquisition of MWR InfoSecurity, a cybersecurity advice and solutions company in Basingstoke, U.K., for £80 million, subject to customary cash, debt and working capital adjustments. In addition, an earn-out maximum of £25 million in cash will be paid after 18 months subject to the achievement of agreed business targets for a period from July 2018 to December 2019. F-Secure says acquisition will make it the largest single source of cybersecurity services and detection and response solutions in Europe.
Jul. 2. Keyfactor, of Cleveland, a digital identity management company, announces acquisition of Redtrust, of Barcelona, Spain, an identity solutions provider. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. It says acquisition will help Keyfactor fulfill its mission of securing the digital identities for companies of all sizes, in any market, and complement its end-to-end secure identity and code signing platform.
Jul. 2. Exabeam, of San Mateo, Calif., a SIEM software maker, announces acquisition of SkyFormation, of Kefar Shmue, Israel, a cloud security company. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. It says move will enable Exabeam to establish an office in Israel, provide access to talent, and help more customers move their businesses, and their security to the cloud. The acquisition follows the launch of Exabeam SaaS Cloud in February 2019 and the company’s first cloud security service, Exabeam Threat Intelligence Service, in September 2018.
Stay tuned for the Q1 2020 edition of the Mergers and Acquisitions Report.
John P. Mello, Jr. is a freelance writer specializing in business and technology subjects, including consumer electronics, business computing and cyber security.
