Arctic Wolf and BlackBerry, which each offer security software and services, entered into a definitive agreement for Arctic Wolf to acquire BlackBerry’s Cylance endpoint security assets. Cylance is a pioneer of AI-based endpoint protection. With this transaction, Arctic Wolf expects to usher in a new era of simplicity, flexibility and outcomes to the endpoint security market, delivering improved security operations.
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 in Arctic Wolf. Allowing for price adjustments, BlackBerry will receive approximately $80 million in cash, and about $40 million in cash one year following closing.
The proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close during BlackBerry’s fiscal Q4.
Arctic Wolf delivers solutions from a single open platform to meet customer need for effective, comprehensive and reliable security outcomes. With the addition of Cylance’s suite of endpoint security capabilities and enhanced AI functionality, Arctic Wolf will bolster its position as a market-leading platform provider, offering coverage from the endpoint to the edge.
“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, Arctic Wolf’s president and CEO. “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 BlackBerry CEO, John Giamatteo. “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.”
There will be no impact to BlackBerry’s secure communications portfolio of businesses, which include BlackBerry UEM, AtHoc and SecuSUITE.
With the addition of a native endpoint security solution to its portfolio, meanwhile, Arctic Wolf is building a large open XDR security platform to allow customers and partners to have the option to leverage more than 15 supported endpoint solutions.
“Organizations are looking to unify tools and operations via a single platform that can effectively analyze and respond to security threats, drive consistent security outcomes, and demonstrably minimize risk,” said Dan Schiappa, chief product and services officer, Arctic Wolf. “In the past, this has been a near-impossible, costly goal for resource-constrained leaders. By adding endpoint security to our platform, we will be delivering the security outcomes organizations want in one, frictionless operational platform to go toe-to-toe with today’s advanced threats, while maintaining our commitment to customers and partners leveraging other endpoint solutions.”
