Cybersecurity solutions and services provider Arctic Wolf has entered into an agreement to purchase BlackBerry’s Cylance assets, the companies announced in a press release on Monday. The acquisition of Cylance’s AI-based endpoint protection is set to enable Arctic Wolf to deliver security operations with improved simplicity and flexibility as they integrate the newly obtained assets. Already a leader in AI-empowered security operations, Arctic Wolf plans to use Cylance’s advanced endpoint security and AI capabilities to provide effective and streamlined security.
Details of the Acquisition
The agreement between the two companies spells out the financial terms and timeline of the acquisitions. Arctic Wolf will purchase the Cylance assets from BlackBerry for $160 million in cash and around 5.5 million common Arctic Wolf shares. After certain adjustments are made as laid out in the agreement, BlackBerry will ultimately receive approximately $80 million at the time of closing and an additional $40 million after one year. The deal is expected to close during BlackBerry’s fourth fiscal quarter.
Both Arctic Wolf and BlackBerry see this acquisition as a win that will bring added value for all stakeholders. Arctic Wolf’s platforms will benefit from the incorporation of Cylance’s capabilities, enabling the delivery of advanced security. At the same time, BlackBerry customers and shareholders will benefit from the continued service of Cylance’s functions under the management of a security leader like Arctic Wolf.
Strategic Rationale
Arctic Wolf intends to integrate Cylance’s endpoint protection capabilities into Aurora, their open XDR platform, to address shifting security needs in an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape. The integration of Cylance’s AI-enhanced functionality is expected to significantly cut down on alert fatigue, minimize exposure to risks, and enhance customer experience with the platform.
The acquisition is a success in the face of the growing industry demand for unified cybersecurity platforms. Incorporating Cylance capabilities into Aurora will address this need and streamline operations, enabling Arctic Wolf to deliver unified and streamlined security operations with increased effectiveness.
Industry Impact
The use of AI in modern endpoint security solutions is also a response to changing security trends and needs. As bad actors increasingly turn to AI tools to empower their attacks and maximize their payouts, it is important for cybersecurity to keep up and protect against new and evolving threats. Incorporating AI capabilities into a security platform like Aurora can enable more dynamic and adaptable threat detection and mitigation and help to ensure that cybersecurity protocols can evolve over time.
“Cyber tech is particularly vulnerable to atrophy if it isn’t cared for and fed properly. AI-powered threat actors and machine-on-machine cyber warfare is now a reality,” says Hank Thomas, Managing Partner at Strategic Cyber Ventures, a Washington DC-based venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity companies. “It is important that cyber tactics, techniques, procedures, and technology quickly innovate, collaborate with, and, if needed, merge with other technologies to fill gaps in our defenses.” A security tool’s ability to adapt and evolve to meet new and emerging threats may make or break the success of the solution.
Customer and Partner Benefits
Customers and partners of both Arctic Wolf and BlackBerry will see benefits from this acquisition. Arctic Wolf’s existing Aurora platform enables the use of many different endpoint solutions, and the integration of a native endpoint security solution into its portfolio is expected to increase functionality and improve security for customers.
The AI-powered threat detection and prevention capabilities of Cylance are well known: Gartner’s Peer Insights named it the 2024 Customers’ Choice for endpoint protection platforms, and many leading organizations rely on it to stop attacks. The plan to incorporate this level of endpoint protection into a broader open XDR security platform is complemented by Arctic Wolf’s comprehensive security operations approach.
BlackBerry customers and partners will also see continued advantages from the transaction, as BlackBerry’s retained assets and continued collaboration offer the company the ongoing opportunity to influence and benefit from Arctic Wolf’s integration of Cylance. BlackBerry customers will gain from the continuity of the product and Arctic Wolf’s expertise and service.
Executive Insights
Both BlackBerry and Arctic Wolf executives have noted the potential for this acquisition to improve security and offer benefits to those on both sides of the transaction. “We see this transaction as a win-win for our shareholders and all other stakeholders,” says John Giamatteo, chief executive officer of BlackBerry, highlighting the continued advantages of the deal for BlackBerry and its customers.
In addition to benefitting both companies, the acquisition also approaches the issue of a changing security landscape that cybersecurity solutions and services providers have been attempting to keep up with. “Security has an operations and effectiveness problem and endpoint solutions alone have failed to live up to the outcomes they have promised for years,” according to Nick Schneider, president and chief executive officer at Arctic Wolf. The addition of sophisticated tools like Cylance into an open XDR platform is a significant step toward addressing these pressing issues, streamlining security processes in a unified platform.
Conclusion
The acquisition of BlackBerry’s Cylance assets by Arctic Wolf is set to improve the functionality of the open XDR platform Aurora by incorporating native endpoint security with AI-enhanced capabilities. Representative of a larger industry push toward unified and simplified tools and operations, the transaction will enable Arctic Wolf to deliver security outcomes that have previously been difficult to achieve.
While the addition of Cylance’s capabilities is expected to improve security outcomes for organizations, incorporating new tools and functionalities may lead to bumps in the road. If the integration of the new assets is done smoothly and securely, it can lay the groundwork for new and existing customers to reap maximum security and efficiency benefits from the acquisition.
