Palo Alto Networks is apparently in negotiations to take over Demisto Inc. This is a digital security startup founded by four former McAfee managers. No formal talks have been announced, so it is possible that in the end nothing is going on.
The site Calcalist reports on the basis of anonymous sources that conversations are taking place between Demisto and Palo Alto Networks. The site spoke to co-founder Dan Sarel of Demisto about the possible takeover. However, he refused to answer these questions, although he did state that Demisto is currently experiencing significant growth in both sales and staff numbers.
Strong growth
Demisto has so far raised 69 million dollars during investment rounds, at least according to PitchBook Data. The company has an estimated value of USD 218 million and has already received investments from Greylock Partners, Accel and ClearSky, among others. These investments are not strange: Demisto is experiencing strong growth.
Only last year, Rishi Bhargava, one of the other co-founders, told the Silicon Valley Business Journal that Demisto had doubled the number of employees in a short period of time. The company now employs 120 people, but this number is expected to double this year. So there is still a lot of growth in it and that makes it at least not surprising if Palo Alto Networks is indeed interested in a takeover.
The Demisto platform automates the response to common security issues. In addition, Demisto ensures that security personnel only react when it is really necessary to do so. A chat interface has been set up for this purpose, which allows security guards to communicate directly with affected personnel. Just last year, a direct competitor of Demisto, Phantom Cyber Corp., was acquired by Splunk. It paid $350 million at the time.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.