Fastly Stock Jumps With $775M Acquisition Of Signal Sciences

Fast growing edge computing cloud standout Fastly is acquiring cybersecurity firm Signal Sciences for $775 million in a move to boost Fastly’s edge security capabilities and accelerate sales at the edge.

The acquisition deal, announced Thursday morning, lifted Fastly’s stock up more than 7 percent to $95.98 per share. Fastly’s stock has rebounded significantly from a low of $11.13 per share in mid-March.

Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Fastly will acquire Signal Sciences for $200 million in cash and approximately $575 million worth of Class A Common Stock. The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2020.

[Related: Edge Data Center Pioneer EdgeConneX Acquired By EQT]

Fastly’s edge cloud platform helps customers create digital experiences quickly and securely by processing customers’ applications as close to their end-users as possible at the edge. The platform is programmable and supports agile software development. Some of its nearly 2,000 customers include Vimeo, Pinterest and GitHub.

Signal Sciences is one of the fastest growing web application security companies in the market, protecting more than 40,000 applications and over a trillion production request per month, according to the company. The company provides a developer-friendly and programmable solution that helps businesses make accurate and automated security decisions.

With Signal Sciences technology, Fastly said it will create a new security offering dubbed, Secure@Edge, a unified web application and API protection solution that will power and protect companies looking to begin or further their digital transformation.

“Together with Signal Sciences, we will give developers modern security tools designed for the way they work,” said Fastly CEO Joshua Bixby in a statement. “This new solution will integrate with our Compute@Edge platform, accelerating the adoption of edge computing, while simultaneously solving for modern security challenges.”

Earlier this month, San Francisco-based Fastly reported second quarter revenue of $75 million, up a whopping 62 percent year over year, besting Wall Street estimates. Fastly increased its full-year 2020 revenue guidance to upwards of $300 million, compared to roughly $200 million in sales last year. Fastly has received something of a boost stemming from the coronavirus pandemic as network traffic has surged as more people work from home.

In May 2019, Fastly raised $180 million during its initial public offering (IPO) with shares priced at $16. Fastly recently did a secondary offering which raised more than $280 million with shares priced at roughly $41.50. The company’s biggest customer is social media company TikTok, accounting for roughly 12 percent of its total revenue.