Israeli Cybersecurity Firm Guardicore Acquired By Akamai For $600M

Israeli cybersecurity startup Guardicore will be acquired by US cybersecurity firm Akamai Technologies for about $600 million, the companies announced in a joint statement on Wednesday.

Akamai said it had entered into a definitive agreement to buy the Tel Aviv-based startup so that it can position itself to be “uniquely suited to provide comprehensive protections” for enterprise customers and defend itself against the spread of malware and ransomware.

Founded in 2013 by Pavel Gurvich, Dror Sal’ee, and Ariel Zeitlin, Guardicore is a cloud and data center security company that protects an organization’s core assets using segmentation and micro-segmentation controls. The company has raised $106 million to date, including a $60 million Series C round in May 2019.

Guardicore’s micro-segmentation solution is designed to limit user access to authorized applications. By avoiding communication as the default, the threat surface and risk exposure are reduced and the spread of malware is limited, protecting the flow of enterprise data, the company said.

Akamai already offers a broad suite of Zero Trust security solutions that help prevent attackers and malware on employee devices from gaining access to enterprise infrastructure and applications. But the company also needs a second layer of defense to block the spread of malware. Guardicore provides this capability and mitigates the impact of breaches and threats posed by ransomware.

“Given the recent surge in ransomware attacks and increasingly stringent compliance regulations, investing in technologies to reduce the spread of malware has become mission-critical,” said Tom Leighton, chief executive officer and co-founder of Akamai Technologies. “By adding Guardicore’s leading micro-segmentation products to Akamai’s comprehensive portfolio of Zero Trust solutions, we believe Akamai will be able to provide the most effective way to combat ransomware on the market today.”

“Guardicore’s mission is to protect enterprises from damage caused by breaches, like ransomware, while safeguarding the critical assets at the heart of the network,” said Pavel Gurvich, co-founder and chief executive officer, Guardicore. “The customer is able to reduce risk in a holistic way across all products, managing from a single console, versus many products and machines. My team and I greatly look forward to joining Akamai to protect the user and the enterprise –  no matter what the user is doing or where end users and workloads are located.”

Akamai Technologies said the closing of the transaction is expected to occur later this year.