Dive Brief:
- Thoma Bravo-backed cybersecurity firm Sophos completed its acquisition of Secureworks Monday in an all-cash transaction valued at $859 million.
- Sophos said the purchase of Secureworks positions Sophos as the largest pure-play provider of managed detection and response services, with a customer base of 28,000 organizations worldwide.
- The agreement also expands Sophos’s threat intelligence capabilities operating under the Sophos X-Ops name, with the addition of the Secureworks Counter Threat Unit and other security operations and advisory services.
Dive Insight:
Sophos and Secureworks plan to operate under their own brands for the near term, serving their respective customer bases.
The agreement, originally announced in October 2024, marks the latest combination in a series of cyber industry mergers and acquisitions in recent years.
“The combination will enable Sophos to deliver an unparalleled security operations platform, featuring hundreds of built-in integrations for adaptive protection, detection and response for mitigating cyberattacks,” Sophos CEO Joe Levy said via email. “The open and scalable platform helps organizations, especially those with diverse IT estates, safeguard current and future technology investments, providing greater operational efficiencies and return on cybersecurity spend.”
The acceleration of criminal ransomware and state-linked cyber espionage has sparked greater demand in threat hunting and mitigation technology at businesses across the globe.
In January, Tenable announced a deal to buy Tel Aviv-based Vulcan Cyber for $150 million, including $147 million in cash and $3 million in restricted stock.
