Alok Gupta’s Post

In his new interview with CloudTweaks - Thought Leadership Programs and Resources, BitTitan’s General Manager Aaron Wadsworth shares how M&A trends, including digital transformation and cybersecurity, are reshaping the demand for MSP services. Explore how IT integration, communication, and emerging technologies are driving success in complex migrations: https://bit.ly/4eZegTs #MSP #CloudMigration #Cybersecurity #MergersAndAcquisitions

Mazel Tov. Turns out 13 out of 14 cybersecurity acquisitions in the last 6 quarters are Israel-based. The shift from point solutions to platform has pushed the largest security vendors in the world to buy up emerging technologies and expand their own products through M&A. Get ready. Bessemer Venture Partners issued their report and covered the consolidation in detail. What’s striking is the sheer concentration of innovation in Israel. Report is here: https://lnkd.in/dpqZRcby H/T to Tomer Diarai of Aleph below.

In the world of mergers and acquisitions, cybersecurity compliance risks are often overlooked, posing significant threats to the success of these deals. Failing to address these risks can lead to severe financial and reputational damage. It's essential for companies to conduct thorough cybersecurity due diligence to identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities before finalizing any transaction. #Cybersecurity #MergersAndAcquisitions #Compliance

And there are compelling reasons why that is so.

Stark Contrast: Radical Uncertainty vs Radical Clarity In a world full of unknowns, especially among SIEM vendors, Gurucul is the last purpose-built security analytics platform standing. Built from the ground up to detect true threats and enable rapid response, we’ve stayed ahead through innovation and flexibility. Our platform scales to petabytes, curates weekly threat content, and fine-tunes machine learning to detect Zero Day threats. Learn how we’re leading the market for 50% less cost: https://bit.ly/3JhwXGr #SIEM #CyberSecurity #Innovation

Crazy stat - 13 out of 14 cybersecurity acquisitions in the last 6 quarters are Israel-based. A consolidation motion is taking place in the cybersecurity industry. The shift from point solutions to platform has pushed the largest security vendors in the world to buy up emerging technologies and expand their product suite. In fact, it’s still going on, with the upcoming acquisition of Noname Security by Akamai Technologies. My former colleagues Amit Karp, Michael Droesch and Yael Schiff at Bessemer Venture Partners just released a report on the global state of cybersecurity (link in the first comment), but it’s this one graph in particular that caught my attention. The story of global market consolidation is well covered. What’s striking is the sheer concentration of innovation in Israel. Israel-based cybersecurity companies are the most desirable acquisition targets in the world, with interest from incredible global companies like Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. These wonderful M&A outcomes are just the beginning of a greater wave. Over the next 6 quarters, I predict we will see Israel-based cybersecurity companies preparing to go public. The silent juggernauts that have already scaled past $100M+ of ARR are simply waiting for the IPO markets to open up. Who will be the first? Congratulations Cider Security (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), Axis, Lightspin (Acquired by Cisco), Laminar (acquired by Rubrik), Ermetic, a Tenable company, Bionic, a CrowdStrike Company, Perimeter 81, a Check Point Company , Talon (by Palo Alto Networks), Dig Security (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), Spera Security (by Okta), Avalor Security, a Zscaler Company, Flow Security, Gem Security (acquired by Wiz)

To re-emphasize a post that I made earlier. The pro-israel community, and Israelis in general, need to change the mental paradigm. Just because there are a lot of people in Europe or a lot of people in American Blue States does not necessarily make them powerful or more powerful over us! America is graduating millions and millions of kids that can't do even basic math. Whereas Israel is cranking out these kinds of high-tech startups, even in the middle of a multi-front war! Israel's population is slated to be 15 million by 2048. If just 1% of those people can be entrepreneurs and scientists. That's an army of 150,000 mathematicians and scientists. Some of the most promising startups in Silicon Valley have less than 100 employees... Israel can crank out hundreds of valuable startups every year. Meanwhile, the United States is so bankrupt and bereft of scientific talent that almost all of our research institutions are filled with immigrants... A nation of 300 million people that is forced to import executives that have real hard skills. Why should Israel be intimidated by a nation of 300 million people who can barely do math? Israel proves again that it's quality, not quantity that matters in the modern world. We should act like it! #Zionism #Zionist #Israel #StandwithIsrael

The Alphabet-Wiz deal would have the highest revenue multiple in the history of large cybersecurity M&A... ...but it's not entirely in a class of its own. Wiz would fall somewhere between a 45-65x multiple on current revenue (current revenue is estimated, most recent disclosure was $350M). There's one other cybersecurity transaction with a pretty similar profile: Okta's acquisition of Auth0 in 2021. The Okta-Auth0 deal had a 42.7x revenue multiple, which is easily the highest among large ($2.5B+) cybersecurity acquisitions that have actually closed. Auth0 was a clear leader in the Customer Identity (CIAM) market, which Okta estimates to have a $30B TAM. Leading the CIAM market was one of their highest strategic priorities — so they paid a 42.7x multiple to buy the emerging market leader. Sound familiar? Leading the cloud security market is one of Alphabet's highest strategic priorities — so they're willing to pay a 45x+ multiple to buy the emerging market leader. --- Situations like this are similar to CrowdStrike or Okta being taken off the board right before they went public. That didn't happen, obviously — but Wiz is the closest example we have in the industry today. Alphabet is betting they are acquiring a future CrowdStrike or Okta, and they know it takes a heavy premium to do it.

The SIEM market appears to be rapidly consolidating, but why and at what cost? CISCO and Splunk set the tone with a mega-acquisition and now both Exabeam and LogRhythm, as well as Palo Alto Networks and IBM QRadar have followed suit. With 70% of M&A's failing (according to Harvard Business Review) there is good reason for SIEM customers to be uncertain right now. The need for more visibility, better threat detections, and complete data management and cost control has never been greater. So, while customers need radical clarity and radical cost savings it appears they'll instead be met with radical uncertainty. Here's a look at the Exabeam/LogRhythm collision: https://lnkd.in/dDg4Q7ep #SIEM #Cybersecurity #SOC #SecurityAnalytics

How Major Acquisitions Are Transforming Security Operations - BankInfoSecurity.com: How Major Acquisitions Are Transforming Security Operations  BankInfoSecurity.com #CyberSecurity #InfoSec #SecurityInsights