Arctic Wolf Completes $160M Acquisition Of Cylance, Launches Endpoint Security Product

The security operations platform provider says it’s adding 400 employees from BlackBerry along with acquiring Cylance’s endpoint security technology — forming the basis for Arctic Wolf’s Aurora Endpoint Security offering.

Arctic Wolf completed its $160 million Cylance acquisition deal with BlackBerry, paving the way for the security operations platform provider to begin offering its own endpoint security product.

The company announced the launch of its Aurora Endpoint Security offering Tuesday, based around Cylance’s endpoint detection and protection capabilities.

[Related: Arctic Wolf CEO On Why ‘Platformization’ In Security Is ‘Definitely Happening’]

The offering includes capabilities for endpoint protection (Aurora Protect) and endpoint detection (Aurora Endpoint Defense) — as well as two managed options, Aurora Managed Endpoint Defense On-Demand and Aurora Managed Endpoint Defense, according to Arctic Wolf.

In addition to acquiring Cylance’s endpoint security assets, 400 employees from BlackBerry have joined Arctic Wolf through the closing of the acquisition, the vendor told CRN.

The acquisition deal, announced in December, includes $160 million in cash along with 5.5 million common shares in privately held Arctic Wolf. The security vendor has been valued at $4.3 billion by its investors and has considered pursuing an initial public offering.

In its news release Tuesday, Arctic Wolf said the addition of Cylance’s technology will “extend AI-driven prevention and detection capabilities directly to the endpoint” and bolster its security operations platform, which already includes MDR (managed detection and response) as well as vulnerability management, managed security awareness and cloud security.

In an interview with CRN last year, Arctic Wolf CEO Nick Schneider said there is no question that the push toward consolidated platforms in security — also known as “platformization” — is “becoming more and more prevalent.”

“Platformization is definitely happening,” said Schneider, who is also the president of Arctic Wolf. “The days of managing a bunch of different tools from disparate [vendors] are starting to come to an end.”

BlackBerry had paid $1.4 billion to acquire fast-growing Cylance in 2018. At the time, Cylance was an endpoint security up-and-comer rivaling established players in the market while eyeing an IPO.

Cylance went on to become a centerpiece of BlackBerry’s reinvention of itself as a provider of cybersecurity offerings, following the vendor’s move away from the mobile device market.