Arctic Wolf and BlackBerry have entered into a definitive agreement for Arctic Wolf to acquire BlackBerry’s Cylance endpoint security assets.
With this acquisition, Arctic Wolf says it ushers in a new era of simplicity, flexibility, and outcomes to the endpoint security market, delivering the security operations results customers have been asking for.
Under the terms of the agreement, BlackBerry will sell its Cylance assets to Arctic Wolf for $160 million of cash, subject to certain adjustments, and approximately 5.5 million common shares of Arctic Wolf.
After allowing for the purchase price adjustments, BlackBerry will receive approximately $80 million of cash at closing and approximately $40 million of cash one year following the closing.
The proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in BlackBerry’s fourth fiscal quarter.
“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 a truly unified, effective security operations that delivers 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 programs.”
“I am incredibly excited to partner with Arctic Wolf through this agreement,” said John Giamatteo, chief executive officer of BlackBerry. “We see this transaction as a win-win for our shareholders and all other stakeholders. Our customers will realize 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 and as a shareholder of the company.”
BlackBerry says that the acquisition will have no impact to BlackBerry’s Secure Communications portfolio of businesses, which include BlackBerry UEM, BlackBerry AtHoc and BlackBerry SecuSUITE. The Secure Communications business will remain an integral part of the BlackBerry portfolio.
Dan Schiappa, Arctic Wolf’s Chief Product and Services Officer said:
The deep, differentiated integration of Cylance’s portfolio into the Arctic Wolf Aurora Platform introduces a fundamentally unique approach to endpoint security. This innovation is designed to make a meaningful difference in how organizations combat cyber risk, elevating both protection and operational efficiency.
We’re not a services company adding a new tool to its portfolio, or a tools company bolting on services to its products—we’re a security operations company with an open platform who will offer organizations the ability to experience world-class endpoint protection, while also gaining access to enhanced business resilience, warranty protection, and improved insurability enabled by our Concierge Delivery Model and Security Journey.
The root cause of a lack of operationalization is due to alert fatigue, product misconfigurations, and the inability for endpoint tools to interact with other security tools in a truly useful way.
This is why security platforms are playing such an increasingly crucial role in stopping modern threats, because organizations are looking for a single source of truth that can sort through the noise generated by the dozens of different tools.
Simplicity goes a long way in helping security teams prioritize and complete the security activities that builds resilience over time.
At its core, cybersecurity has evolved into a data problem, making AI a cornerstone of the industry’s future. When Cylance technology is combined with Arctic Wolf’s Alpha AI, and then applied to the more than 7 trillion security events their platform processes each week, Cylance will unlock an immense volume of insights that will enable them to better detect and respond to threats faster than ever.
Schiappa continued:
The Aurora Platform has integrated with Cylance for over seven years, and their ability to stop 98% of endpoint attacks before they begin is something we have seen first-hand in our SOC. Over time, we believe the deep and differentiated integration Cylance will have within our Aurora Platform will build on this efficacy and help our customers who choose Cylance as their endpoint protection product of choice achieve best-in-class protection.
But, as Arctic Wolf enters the endpoint security space, one thing remains constant: our unwavering commitment to building an open platform. What makes the cybersecurity industry unique is that we all share a common goal—stopping threat actors. That’s why we will continue to support (and further expand) all our existing platform integrations, including those with the more than 15 endpoint security vendors we support today. With this strategy, we believe we are driving a unique and differentiated approach in our industry.
To make security truly effective, interoperability and freedom of choice must take center stage. While many leading cyber platforms still hesitate to integrate with endpoint tools from competitors, we passionately believe our vendor agnostic approach is what serves the best interests of both our customers and our partner community.
