Palo Alto, Recorded Future and FireEye go shopping

The cyber-security sector saw three major acquisitions announced in the past few days. Insight Partners has acquired Recorded Future, Palo Alto has bought Twistlock and PureSec, and FireEye has snapped up Verodin.

The biggest among the three was the all-cash deal of US$ 780 million (£617 million), which private equity firm Insight Partners paid to take a controlling stake in Recorded Future. According to the deal, Insight Partners managing director Mike Triplett and vice president Thomas Krane will join Recorded Future’s board of directors.

"This evolution of our relationship will allow Recorded Future to better serve its current and future clients as we tap into the full potential of our technology roadmap and position our software to truly answer some of the most difficult and unique intelligence challenges faced by our community," said Christopher Ahlberg, co-founder and CEO of Recorded Future.

Palo Alto reported on 29 May that it has agreed to acquire container security firm Twistlock for US$ 410 million (£324 million) in cash. The company has also snapped up PureSec, which specialises in serverless security, for an undisclosed amount. Twistlock co-founders Ben Bernstein and Dima Stopel will join Palo Alto Networks, as will PureSec co-founders Shaked Zin, Ory Segal and Avi Shulman.

"We believe that our acquisition of these leading companies will significantly enhance our ability to be the cyber-security partner of choice for our customers while expanding our capabilities and strengthening our Prisma cloud security strategy," said Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks.

The third deal of the week was FireEye’s takeover of Verodin for US$ 250 million (£197 million) in cash and stock on 28 May. FireEye said in a statement it was interested in the Verodin Security Instrumentation Platform, which is used to validate the effectiveness of cyber-security controls.

"Verodin will integrate with FireEye Helix security orchestration capabilities to help customers prioritise and automate continuous improvement of security controls. Customers will also be able to implement Verodin cyber-security measurement and validation solutions "as-a-service" through the FireEye Managed Defense service and as an Expertise On Demand automated service," FireEye said.

source scmagazineuk

Industry: Cyber Security News