BlackBerry acquires $1.4 billion security company Cylance

BlackBerry informs Techzine of an agreement to acquire Cylance, a cybersecurity company. The Canadian company pays USD 1.4 billion for this, which is equivalent to approximately EUR 1.2 billion. For BlackBerry, his biggest takeover ever made.

Cylance’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning focuses on predicting and preventing known and unknown threats to endpoints. In their own words, the software uses a minimum of memory and energy. This enabled the company to win 3500 enterprise customers.

As a result, Cylance also aroused the interest of several investors, so that it already raised 300 million dollars. Dell Technologies and Blackstone, among others, put money into the company. The head office is in California, but there is also a location in the Netherlands. The company would be close to an IPO, but now there’s BlackBerry. Under the new owner, Cylance will continue to function independently.

Meeting

With this purchase BlackBerry wants to strengthen its entire portfolio. This means, among other things, that the QNX division, which produces software for self-propelled cars, will be given extra specialism. Cylance’s technology must also be integrated into Spark, which protects Internet or Things devices at the edge of the network.

In a reaction, Cylance CEO Stuart McClure says that the specialised staff is a perfect fit for BlackBerry. The teams, as well as the customers and technologies, should benefit directly from BlackBerry’s global reach. By combining mobility solutions and security with Cylance’s AI technology, McClure wants to be able to offer functionalities in a single platform.

Rounding

The parties expect the acquisition to be completed before the end of BlackBerry’s current fiscal year, which ends in February 2019. Obstacles to the finalisation of a takeover may still exist. Think of investors who are going to be obstructive or a supervisor who is doing research.