[ad_1]
BlackBerry is making its biggest acquisition.
The once dominant smartphone maker, renowned for the manufacture of mobile devices, was so popular that consumers were in the habit of calling it "crackberries". It is investing $ 1.4 billion to buy Cylance, a cybersecurity company specializing in threat detection based on machine learning. Pending expected regulatory approval by February, the purchase will deplete more than half of BlackBerry's cash.
The acquisition reflects the multi-year imperative of BlackBerry CEO John Chen: moving from selling phones to software and enterprise services. He first exposed the strategy shortly after becoming CEO in 2013. (BlackBerry stopped making its own phones two years ago, although it continues to license its brand.)
In a statement, Chen said the addition of Cylance "would immediately complete our entire portfolio." He said that the company, which should operate as an independent entity, would strengthen BlackBerry's "unified device management" software, which helps businesses manage their devices. and applications, and QNX, an operating system used in power plants and cars.
With Cylance, BlackBerry is looking for a larger share of information security spending by companies, which, according to the Gartner market research, will exceed $ 114 billion this year. The fact that BlackBerry invests three times more than the price paid for rival Good Technology, its most important recent acquisition, completed in 2015, shows that it is fully committed to pursuing this new business model, including the best example is BlackBerry Spark, a platform. is the secure connective tissue for all kinds of connected devices.
If the transaction is completed, the purchase of Cylance by BlackBerry will be the latest in a recent series of cyber security acquisitions, including the $ 2.4 billion purchase of Duo by Cisco and the private equity firm Thoma Bravo who acquires Veracode for $ 950 million. (There are rumors, however, that Facebook, sown by propagandists, trolls, and privacy invaders, was also looking for a major cyber security acquisition.)
Even though Cylance is leaving the Unicorn Club, a collection of privately valued startups at $ 1 billion or more, another company has taken over. Earlier this week, I announced that Netskope, a startup in the cloud security industry, had won its unicorn horn after collecting a new $ 170 million tranche of financing. But these mythical beasts flee the stable faster than their stock can be restored.
The consolidation of the market will continue. Businesses will spend more money on cybersecurity in the coming years, but with fewer suppliers.
BlackBerry is hopeful that it will be one of them.
Have a good week-end.
Robert Hackett
@rhhackett
Welcome to the Saturday edition of the technical sheet, Fortune & # 39;Daily technical newsletter. Fortune Robert Hackett reporter here. You can join Robert Hackett via Twitter, Cryptocat, Jabber (see OTR fingerprint on my about.me), PGP encrypted email (see the public key on my Keybase.io), Wickr, Signal or whatever you prefer (safely). Comments welcome.
[ad_2]
Source link
