Arctic Wolf has acquired Cylance, BlackBerry’s beleaguered cybersecurity enterprise, for $160 million — a major write-down from the $1.4 billion BlackBerry paid to accumulate the corporate in 2018.
Under the phrases of the deal, which is anticipated to shut in BlackBerry’s fiscal This autumn, BlackBerry will promote its Cylance belongings to Arctic Wolf for $160 million in money. BlackBerry will get ~$80 million at closing and the remainder of the tranche a 12 months later, together with roughly 5.5 million frequent shares in Arctic Wolf.
“We see this transaction as a win-win for our shareholders and all different stakeholders,” BlackBerry CEO John Giammatteo mentioned in a press release. “Our clients will notice the advantages of continuity of service and the experience {that a} world cybersecurity chief like Arctic Wolf offers. Arctic Wolf advantages by including Cylance’s endpoint safety options to its native platform. Finally, as Arctic Wolf leverages its scale to construct upon and develop the Cylance enterprise, BlackBerry will profit as a reseller of the portfolio to our massive authorities clients and as a shareholder of the corporate.”
Close to eight years in the past, BlackBerry, as soon as recognized for its keyboard-sporting smartphones, was pitching the Cylance purchase as a serious part of its pivot towards enterprise companies. It was BlackBerry’s largest M&A deal to this point — all in money — and noticed Cylance combine its tech with BlackBerry’s current platforms, however largely proceed to function as a standalone enterprise unit.
But Cylance, based in 2015 by former McAfee and Intel duo Stuart McClure and Ryan Permeh, struggled to take care of a foothold in an more and more crowded cybersecurity sector. The firm’s AI-powered cyberthreat-analyzing software program slowly misplaced floor to rivals; in line with IDC, Cylance had simply 1.3% of the marketplace for endpoint safety in 2022. (Endpoint safety refers to safety for units like desktops, laptops, and cellular units.)
Giammatteo blamed Cylance’s failure to achieve traction partially in the marketplace’s shift to menace detection and response merchandise, which Cylance doesn’t provide.
Cylance had additionally turn out to be a serious drain on BlackBerry’s broader cybersecurity division, posting a file $51 million loss for the fiscal 12 months ending February 28, 2025. Earlier this 12 months, BlackBerry CFO Tim Foote mentioned that the corporate would look to redirect spending from Cylance and different expensive areas to develop its extra worthwhile items, like its safe communications enterprise.
BlackBerry inventory was up 14.10% as of publish time.
In a weblog submit, Arctic Wolf CPO Dan Schiappa known as Cylance’s strategy to endpoint safety “basically distinctive,” and mentioned it could allow Arctic Wolf to carry to market an “revolutionary, expanded, and refined endpoint safety resolution.”
“For Cylance clients, the endpoint safety merchandise you depend on on daily basis won’t solely proceed to be totally supported, however will even profit from the sources and experience of Arctic Wolf,” Schiappa mentioned. “Endpoint safety is a key precedence for us as an organization, and as one of many main platform firms within the cybersecurity area, Arctic Wolf is uniquely outfitted to offer the sources, innovation, and experience wanted to take Cylance’s endpoint merchandise to the subsequent stage.”
Cylance is Arctic Wolf’s sixth acquisition since its founding in 2012. The agency’s others embody safe intelligence platform RootSecure, menace looking platform Rank Software, safety coaching startup Habitu8, digital forensics agency Tetra Defense, and safety orchestration software program developer Revelstoke.
