12 Oct Cybersecurity M&A Report, Vol. 4, No. 3: Advent’s $1.4 billion Deal Tops M&A Activity For Quarter
Deal flow includes CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, KBR, Ivanti, Eurozeo, and Fastly
– Northport, N.Y. – Oct. 1, 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.
September
Sep. 30. Uprite Services, of Houston, announces merger with CRSA Technologies, of San Antonio. According to the companies, the merger will allow them to offer a complete range of IT services to small- and medium-sized companies throughout Texas, including support for voice over IP business telephone systems, structured and low voltage cabling solutions, surveillance cameras, work from home business solutions, and cybersecurity.
Sep. 29. Ivanti, of South Jordan, Utah, announces acquisition of MobileIron, of Mountain View, Calif., and Pulse Secure, of Santa Clara, Calif. As part of the acquisition agreement, Ivanti will pay about $872 million to purchase all outstanding shares of MobileIron, which makes a mobile-centric security platform. Financial terms were undisclosed for the deal with Pulse Science, a provider of secure access solutions.
Sep. 28. Arista Networks, of Santa Clara, Calif., a cognitive cloud networking company, announces agreement to acquire Awake Security, maker of a network detection and response platform, also of Santa Clara. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Arista COO Anshul Sadana notes, “With the proliferation of users, devices, and Internet of Things, Awake’s best of breed threat detection platform is synergistic with Arista’s market-leading cognitive cloud networks, delivering proactive security for our customers.”
Sep. 23. CrowdStrike, of Sunnyvale, Calif., an endpoint and cloud protection solutions provider, announces intent to acquire, for $96 million, Preempt Security, of San Francisco, a provider of zero trust and conditional access technology. CrowdStrike says the acquisition will enable it to give its customers enhanced protection against identity-based attacks and insider threats.
Sep. 22. Cheq, based in Tel Aviv, a cybersecurity company, announces intent to purchase ClickCease, a click-fraud prevention company, also of Tel Aviv. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. According to Cheq, the acquisition will enable it to expand its presence in the pay-per-click and search engine marketing space.
Sep. 21. Cybersecurity and digital engineering company Shelde and quality assurance firm IT Revolution, both of Australia, announce merger to form new company called Ampion. CEO Jamie Duffield says in a statement that the new company will be engineering focused. “Our Australia-wide team delivers specialization at scale with three integrated service streams across software assurance, technology security, and digital transformation,” he adds.
Sep. 17. Palo Alto Networks, of Santa Clara, Calif., completes acquisition of Crypsis Group, of McLean, Va., an incident response, risk management, and digital forensics consulting firm, for $265 million in cash, excluding purchase price adjustments. Palo Alto says the acquisition will strengthen its Cortex platform with expert services for incident response and proactive assurance.
Sep. 17. Check Point Software Technologies, of Tel Aviv, an IT security company, announces intent to acquire Odo Security, also of Tel Aviv, a zero trust access company. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Check Point says it will integrate Odo’s technology into its existing products.
Sep. 16. Synetics Mobile Systems, of Sheffield, U.K., and the Quadrant Security Group, in Nottingham, announce merger to form Synectics Security, reported to be one of the largest security integrators in the British Isles. Managing director of the new combined companies Iain Stringer says in a statement the pairing of Synetics Mobile’s decades of experience dealing with the complexities of on-vehicle systems integration together with Quadrant’s expertise and specialist technical qualifications necessary for successful deployment of large-scale security and surveillance solutions will give the combined companies some powerful capabilities.
Sep. 16. Sectigo, of Roseland, N.J., a provider of automated digital identity management and web security solutions, agrees to be acquired by GI Partners, a private equity firm in San Francisco. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. According to GI Partners, it will help support the acceleration of Sectigo’s security innovations and growth as the company expands globally.
Sep. 11. ElevenPaths, a cybersecurity company of Telefónica Tech, of Madrid, a multinational telecommunications company, announces acquisition of iHackLabs, of London, a cybersecurity training company. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Pedro Pablo Pérez, CEO of ElevenPaths, says in a statement that his company is always scouting for collaboration and investment opportunities and the capabilities of iHackLabs’ platforms and solutions developed by their team are at the cutting edge of cybersecurity training.
Sep. 10. ThreatConnect, of Arlington, Va., announces acquisition of Nehemiah Security, of Fairfax, Va., a cyber-risk quantification company. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. ThreatConnect says acquisition will enable it to further deliver on its mission to revolutionize the way organizations protect themselves by turning intelligence into action with a risk-led approach to cybersecurity, making prioritization easy for security teams, enabling them to filter out noise and focus on what matters most.
Sep. 10. Arrow Business Communications, of Godalming in the United Kingdom, a telecommunications equipment and services provider, announces acquisition of Click Networks, of Glasgow, Scotland, a provider of consulting, cloud, security analysis, and hosted telephony and connectivity services. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Click’s Managing Director Mark Mahaffy says in a statement that the deal will allow his company to enhance its existing capabilities and help it provide better support for its clients.
Sep. 3. Innovative Discovery, of Arlington, Va., a legal services and risk mitigation company, acquires Integro, of Englewood, Colo., a provider of information governance and content services solutions. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Integro says the companies offer complementary services, which will allow their customers to take advantage of the expanded skillsets the pair can now offer them.
Sep. 2. Ricoh Europe, based in London, announces acquisition of SimplicITy, of Warsaw, Poland, an information and technology company with a focus on data center transformation solutions, hybrid cloud, networking, and cybersecurity. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Alberto Mariani, senior vice president for office services at Ricoh Europe, says in a statement that the acquisition fits perfectly with his company’s strategy to expand coverage in Poland and to acquire further competences around hybrid cloud and high-end IT services.
Sep. 1. Jazz Networks, of New York City, an insider threat detection and response company, and Vaion, of Uxbridge in the U.K., an end-to-end video security provider, announce completion of their merger to form Ava, which will be headquartered in London. According to Ava, the merger will create a company that can address both cyber and physical threats in unified way.
August
Aug. 28. HelpSystems, of Eden Prairie, Minn., a provider of systems management, security, document management, and business intelligence solutions, completes acquisition of GlobalSCAPE, of San Antonio, a provider of secure file transfer services, by purchasing all its outstanding shares at $9.50 a share. HelpSystems says in a statement that the acquisition will augment its data security business, which includes data loss prevention and data classification software.
Aug. 28. Tesserent, a network security company based in Camberwell, Australia, agrees to acquire Ludus Cybersecurity, of Canberra, for AU$536,000 in cash and purchase of 4.3 million Tesserent shares at 22.42 cents a share. The acquisition will reportedly round out Tesserent’s efforts to become the largest end-to-end cybersecurity services provider in the Canberra market, with more than 180 locally-based cybersecurity specialists.
Aug. 27. Fastly, a content delivery network provider in San Francisco, agrees to acquire Signal Sciences, a security software maker in Culver City, Calif., for $775 million — $575 million in shares, $200 million in cash, and $50 million in restricted stock for Signal employees. The acquisition is expected to expand Fastly’s presence in the lucrative and rapidly growing enterprise cybersecurity market.
Aug. 20. Data443 Risk Mitigation, of Raleigh, N.C., a data security and software company, announces acquisition of intellectual property rights and assets of FileFacets, of New York City, maker of a data discovery and content search platform. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Data443 says in a statement that acquisition will give the company “deep and established technology in information taxonomy management, machine learning, and rapid data indexing, which are important for data privacy and eDiscovery use cases.”
Aug. 19. KBR, of Houston, an engineering, procurement, and construction company, agrees to acquire Centauri, of Chantilly, Va., a cybersecurity consulting firm, for $800 million (net of tax benefits) in cash from Arlington Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Washington, D.C. KBR says in a statement that the acquisition will enable it to significantly expand its military space and intelligence businesses and builds on its already strong cybersecurity and missile defense solutions.
Aug. 17. Advent International, a global private equity investor based in Boston, announces completion of its offer to purchase all 40.1 million outstanding shares of Forescout Technologies, of San Jose, Calif., an IoT security company, for $29 a share. Deal is valued at $1.4 billion. Advent partnered with Crosspoint Capital Partners, of San Francisco, a private equity investment firm focused on the cybersecurity and privacy industries, on the transaction. They say in a statement that together they will provide Forescout with resources and expertise to help drive continued innovation and scale in Enterprise of Things security, delivering solutions to address the massive and evolving attack surface that businesses and organizations need to monitor and secure every day.
Aug. 13. Siemens, an international engineering and electronics company based in Munich, Germany, agrees to acquire UltraSoC Technologies, of Cambridge, U.K., a provider of instrumentation and analytics solutions that put intelligent monitoring, cybersecurity, and functional safety capabilities into system-on-chip hardware. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Siemens says in a statement that the acquisition will enable it to provide its customers with a unified, data-drive infrastructure that can enhance product quality, safety, and cybersecurity.
Aug. 13. LogPoint, headquartered in Copenhagen, maker of a platform for collecting, analyzing, and monitoring machine data, agrees to acquire agileSI, a popular SAP security solution, from Orange Cyberdefense Germany. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. LogPoint says in a statement that the acquisition will strengthen its position as an application security provider.
Aug. 13. Project One Resources, a minerals exploration company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, announces its intent to acquire two unnamed European cybersecurity companies. It says in a statement that the companies will provide a robust foundation for a buy and build strategy.
Aug. 4. HaystackID, of Washington, D.C., and NightOwl Global, of Minneapolis, two legal data analysis companies, announce merger. They say in a statement that the merger will provide their customers with effective and responsive cybersecurity and legal discovery services needed to face increasingly complex security, investigation, and litigation challenges.
Aug. 3. Eurazeo, headquartered in Paris, a private equity firm, announces it will invest 80 million Euros ($94.6 million), through its subsidiary Euraezo PME, to gain a majority stake in Utac Ceram, of Montlhéry, France, an inspection and testing company. It says move will allow it to increase its European presence in the area of homologation and technical testing and integrate new digital capabilities into its portfolio, including cybersecurity, digital simulation, connectivity, data management, and benchmarking.
July
Jul. 27. Atos, of Paris, a digital transformation company, announces it has entered negotiations with shareholders of Digital Security, also of Paris, a provider of cybersecurity auditing, consulting, and training services, with an intention to acquire the company. Pierre Barnabé, senior executive vice president and head of big data and cybersecurity at Atos, says in a statement that the move will bolster his company’s position in the French and European cybersecurity market and double the company’s cybersecurity resources in France.
Jul. 21. TalaTek, of Tysons Corner, Va., a risk management company, announces merger with Cerberus Sentinel, of Scottsdale, Ariz., a provider of cybersecurity consulting and managed services. Under the agreement, TalaTek will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cerberus Sentinel and will continue to focus on providing integrated risk management services to the federal government and private sector. TalaTek President and Founder Baan Alsinawi says in a statement that the deal will accelerate her company’s progression toward becoming a leading provider of risk management services for the federal government and small to mid-sized businesses.
Jul. 21. Xales Holdings, of Washington, D.C., a financial technology holding company, announces agreement to acquire all the outstanding stock of Adaptive, of Aliso Viejo, Calif., a metadata management solutions provider. Financial details of the deal were undisclosed. Xales CEO Thomas Nash says in a statement that the deal will allow his company’s clients to achieve tremendous savings and compliance benefits through data analytics, and artificial intelligence to support governance applications and cybersecurity.
Jul. 20. Fortinet, a network security appliances company in Sunnyvale, Calif., announces acquisition of OPAQ Networks, a Secure Access Service Edge service provider in Herndon, Va.. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Fortinet, in a statement, says acquisition will enable it to offer the industry’s only true zero trust access and security solution.
Jul. 20. Ascend Technologies, an IT and cybersecurity services provider in Omaha, Neb., announces merger with Infogressive, an information security company in Lincoln, Neb. Ascend CEO Wayne Kiphart explains in a statement, “Ascend and Infogressive leadership saw an opportunity to create continued growth in our respective businesses while offering a broader range of services and capabilities to our respective clients.” He adds that the merger will significantly bolster Ascend’s established strengths in cloud and infrastructure, application management, data management, and cybersecurity.
Jul. 20. Arrow Business Communications, of Godalming in the United Kindgom, a telecommunications equipment and services provider, announces acquisition of Altinet, of Leeds, a provider of email and public cloud security services. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. According to Arrow CEO Richard Burke, the move will “broaden his company’s product portfolio and extend its IT capabilities.”
Jul. 15. Acronis, a cybersecurity company headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, announces acquisition of DeviceLock, of San Francisco, a maker of endpoint control and data leak prevention software. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. DeviceLock’s founder and CTO Ashot Oganesyan says in a statement that as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Acronis, his company “can accelerate product innovation, expand our distribution channel, and leverage our existing technology to meet customer requirements … We are certain that this acquisition will protect millions more users and ensure secure and reliable data protection deployments worldwide.”
Jul. 15. Calian Group, of Kanata, Canada, provider of a diverse range of services from medical clinics and military training exercises to IT consulting to mobile wireless technology, announces acquisition of EMSEC Solutions, of Ottawa, which specializes in radio frequency emission security and technical surveillance countermeasures. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Calian CEO Kevin Ford says in a statement that the acquisition will enable his company to differentiate its cyber business from its competitors.
Jul. 13. CyberCX, of Melbourne, Australia, a cybersecurity company, announces the acquisition of Basis Networks, also of Melbourne, a cybersecurity professional services company. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. CyberCX says the move is part of its strategy to accelerate the growth of its network security, managed services, integration and engineering capabilities.
Jul. 10. WELL Health Technologies Corp., of Vancouver, Canada, a healthcare portfolio company, announces asset purchase deal with Cycura, of Toronto, a cybersecurity consulting services provider and maker of proprietary security products, for a reported CA$2.55 million. Under the deal, WELL will be acquiring all assets of Cycura’s services division, which includes security-focused code reviews, penetration and vulnerability testing, cybersecurity training, incident response services, technical due diligence services, and cybersecurity M&A advisory services.
Jul. 7. Aura, of San Francisco, a financial services company, announces intent to buy Pango, of Redwood City, Calif., a privacy and security company, for an undisclosed sum. It says move will help it expand its current identity protection and security offerings.
Jul. 6. MNP, of Calgary, Canada, a national accounting, tax, and business consulting firm, acquires Next Digital, of Edmonton, a managed IT services provider. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. According to MNP, the acquisition will strengthen its technology solutions practice, including key areas such as applications and operations, cybersecurity, and digital services.
Jul. 6. Welltel, of Dublin, Ireland, a communications company, acquires Novi, of Kildare, a proactive managed cybersecurity company, for 3 million euros ($3.55 million). The deal is expected to allow Welltel to expand and enhance its cybersecurity and managed services offerings.
Jul. 2. HMD Global, of Espoo, Finland., an access control and secure identity solutions developer, announces asset acquisition of Valona, a mobile, enterprise, and cybersecurity software firm. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Jul. 1. VMware, of Palo Alto, Calif., a software company that provides cloud and virtualization services, announces acquisition of Datrium, of Sunnyvale, Calif., a disaster recovery services provider. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. According to Datrium, the deal will allow it to accelerate its plans to support all major cloud platforms.
John P. Mello, Jr. is a freelance writer specializing in business and technology subjects, including consumer electronics, business computing and cyber security.
