Facebook is said to be the latest firm looking to bolster its cybersecurity capabilities through acquisition. Facebook recently detected a breach affecting 30 million users. This latest news comes on top of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and has negatively impacted the technology giant.
Cyber security is increasingly an area of concern for many companies across sectors from technology, financial services, to retail. 63% of CEOs say they are concerned about cyber threats. Major data breaches like those disclosed by Yahoo during its acquisition by Verizon and others naturally make acquirers and consumers anxious. The world was shocked in 2017 when Equifax disclosed hackers had gained access to the information of 143 million individuals including names, social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and driver’s license numbers.
Grappling with this new technological environment, firms are acquiring to protect consumer and company information and stay compliant. $5.7 billion worth of cybersecurity M&A deals had been completed in the first seven months of 2018. A few deals from this year include:
- Cyber security firm Palo Alto Networks, acquired startup RedLock, for $173 million. The acquisition will allow Palo Alto to offer “the most comprehensive security for multi-cloud environments.”
- Oracle purchased Zenedge to boost application and network protection of cloud services.
- VMWare bought E8, a security firm which uses AI to monitor anomalies in system behavior to detect malicious activity and respond early.
- Amazon Web Services acquired Sqrrl, a startup with technology ties with the National Security Agency, for $40 million. Sqrrl’s threat identification software will be used with AWS, the leader in public cloud market.
As the world becomes more digital, as digital payments, online banking, and fintech firms grow in popularity, the need for strong cybersecurity capabilities will continue to rise. Smaller firms may still rely on outside cybersecurity firms to provide these services, but most likely larger companies will look to bring these capabilities in-house quickly through acquisitions.
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