LevelBlue Acquires Fortra’s Alert Logic To Extend MDR Leadership As ‘World’s Largest Pure-Play MSSP’

Fortra will become one of LevelBlue’s leading cybersecurity partners, while LevelBlue will be acquiring Fortra’s Alert Logic managed detection and response (MDR) offering via the terms of the new long-term partnership as the company aims to double the size of business over the next 1-2 years, LevelBlue tells CRN.

LevelBlue, formerly telecom giant AT&T’s security business, has teamed up with Fortra to pair the latter cybersecurity and business software vendor’s offerings with LevelBlue’s own managed services, according to the two companies. As part of what the two companies are calling a “long-term partnership,” LevelBlue will acquire Fortra’s Alert Logic managed detection and response (MDR) offering.

The new partnership, announced on Tuesday, will further LevelBlue’s leadership as “the world’s largest pure-play MSSP” thanks to its expansive portfolio of managed security, offensive security, incident response, threat intelligence, and MDR, according to Plano, Texas-based LevelBlue.

“With that comes scaled telemetry, scaled threat intel and scaled cybersecurity resources on a global basis. This is really a key asset that we’re acquiring and with Fortra as a leading partner in the space already, we think we have a lot of opportunities to partner with them in terms of delivering their digital risk portfolio to our customers, and ensuring that we’re approaching customers together to solve cybersecurity needs,” Sundhar Annamalai, LevelBlue’s chief strategy officer, told CRN.

Financial terms have not been disclosed.

[Related: LevelBlue President On Agentic AI And Standing Out On Its Own Threat Detection, Managed Security Merits]

LevelBlue has been very active in the acquisition space with three deals inked last year. In November, the company closed its acquisition of cybersecurity firm Cybereason for its extended detection and response (XDR) chops. LevelBlue in July bought managed detection and response specialist Trustwave in a move that would make the company one of the largest independent, pure-play managed security service providers in the world, LevelBlue told CRN at the time. Earlier that summer, LevelBlue bought Aon’s Stroz Friedberg cybersecurity consulting practice.

Annamalai (pictured above) said that LevelBlue aims to double the size of the business in the next 12-18 months. The Fortra partnership will benefit both customers and partners, with a focus on continuous growth and improved cybersecurity outcomes for end customers, he added.

“We’ll [now] be able to enhance the portfolio of solutions we’re able to bring to our channel partners,” he said. “There’s still a lot of opportunity on the horizon. The needs of our customers are evolving [and] we want to adapt with them, so as they make evolutions and grow domestically [or] grow internationally, evolving from premise-based solutions to cloud-based solutions, LevelBlue wants to be at the center of that transformation with enterprises.”

Forta, for its part, specializes in advanced offensive and defensive security that helps protect against and eliminate cybersecurity risk across the cyber kill chain. Fortra’s technology helps to remove the risk of lost data, while protecting data from internal and external threats. The company’s technology can also prevent data loss at the common points such as email, file transfer, and through human risk, according to the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based company.

Together with LevelBlue, Fortra’s Alert Logic and other technologies will work with and extend LevelBlue’s existing strengths across data security, brand protection, email security, and offensive security. The partnership will grant partners and end clients with more choice, broader coverage across the attack surface, and improved security outcomes, all delivered through LevelBlue’s managed services model, said LevelBlue.

Fortra in 2025 launched a new partner program, Fortra Protect. The new partnership with LevelBlue will build on Fortra’s ongoing commitment to work with service providers and channel experts to serve clients, the company said.

“We are thrilled to partner closely with LevelBlue. They are rapidly emerging as one of the leading managed security services providers in the market, and I am confident that our Alert Logic customers are in good hands,” Matt Reck, CEO of Fortra said in a statement.

LevelBlue, the standalone managed cybersecurity business, spun out of AT&T in 2024.