Arctic Wolf is acquiring Cylance, BlackBerry’s loss-making endpoint security business, in a deal worth around $160m in cash, a fraction of the $1.4 billion in cash BlackBerry paid for it in 2018.
Back in 2018, Cylance, which was formed in 2015, was still pitching itself as the leader in AI-driven cyberthreat detection, but soon after started to lose ground in the cybersecurity market to cyberthreat detection and response products.
“Security has an operations and effectiveness problem and endpoint solutions alone have failed to live up to the outcomes they have promised for years,” said Nick Schneider, president and chief executive officer, Arctic Wolf. “By incorporating Cylance’s endpoint security capabilities into our open-XDR Aurora platform, we will be addressing a rampant need for truly unified, effective security operations that deliver better outcomes for customers. We believe we will be able to rapidly eliminate alert fatigue, reduce total risk exposure, and help customers unlock further value with our warranty and insurability programmes.”
John Giamatteo, chief executive officer of BlackBerry, added: “We see this transaction as a win-win for our shareholders and all other stakeholders. Our customers will realise the benefits of continuity of service and the expertise that a global cybersecurity leader like Arctic Wolf provides.
“Arctic Wolf benefits by adding Cylance’s endpoint security solutions to its native platform. Finally, as Arctic Wolf leverages its scale to build upon and grow the Cylance business, BlackBerry will benefit as a reseller of the portfolio to our large government customers.”
There will be no impact to BlackBerry’s Secure Communications portfolio of businesses, which include BlackBerry UEM, BlackBerry AtHoc and BlackBerry SecuSUITE, said BlackBerry.
