Publicly-traded cybersecurity play Palo Alto Networks has picked up two startups with its $410 million buy of Portland-based Twistlock and purchase of Tel Aviv-based PureSec for an undisclosed amount.
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The company, which ironically calls Santa Clara its home base (rather than Palo Alto), has ramped up its buying activity over the past 14 months with a total of six known acquisitions since March 2018, according to Crunchbase data. It’s bought a total of 10 companies since March 2014 (that we know of).
Palo Alto Networks’ latest purchases of two venture-backed companies, (Twistlock had raised $63.1 million and PureSec a more modest $10 million), are part of its strategy to be the “industry’s most complete cloud security offering,” CEO Nikesh Arora said in a press release.
Founded in 2015 by CEO Ben Bernstein and VP R&D Dima Stopel, who will join Palo Alto Networks, Twistlock said it has more than 290 customers, more than 25 percent of which are on the Fortune 100 list. In a press release, Bernstein said the two companies “have like-minded teams” and that Twistlock’s “vision for a cloud-native security platform” was “a natural fit with Palo Alto Networks’ cloud strategy.”
Shaked Zin, Ory Segal, and Avi Shulman co-founded PureSec in 2016. The startup is focused on serverless security, meaning its customers can run their applications “securely and reliably,” you guessed it, without servers.
Shareholders didn’t seem thrilled about the acquisitions, considering the fact that Palo Alto Networks saw its shares dip 5 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday. (The company also reported its third-quarter earnings, which beat analysts’ expectations, according to CNBC.)
Meanwhile, Palo Alto Networks isn’t the only publicly-traded cybersecurity company scooping up startups. Earlier this week, FireEye acquired Verodin (which had raised $33.1 million) for $250 million in its seventh known acquisition since 2014.
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
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