Palo Alto Networks CEO: CyberArk Has Already ‘Surpassed’ Expectations As Agentic Identity Security Heats Up

The $25 billion acquisition, now operating under the name of Idira, is also poised to help pave the way for more large-scale M&A at Palo Alto Networks, CEO Nikesh Arora said Tuesday.

Palo Alto Networks’ acquisition of identity security powerhouse CyberArk is off to a rapid start as part of the cybersecurity giant’s platform—and is poised to help pave the way for more large-scale M&A at the company, according to CEO Nikesh Arora.

In comments Tuesday during the cybersecurity giant’s quarterly call with analysts, Arora said that the first full quarter following the $25 billion acquisition of CyberArk—now operating under the name of Idira—has already blown past the vendor’s expectations.

“In our inaugural quarter post-close, CyberArk has surpassed our internal benchmarks as we move to execute our unified vision for identity security,” he said during the call.

Without a doubt, Palo Alto Networks has taken a smart approach to expanding its platform to include identity security through the integration of CyberArk, according to John Hurley, CRO at Denver-based Optiv Security, a top Palo Alto Networks partner and No. 28 on CRN’s 2025 Solution Provider 500.

The launch of the company’s CyberArk-based identity security offering under the name Idira clearly “wasn't just a name change,” Hurley said. “It was really a thoughtful integration. They took the tech and the vision, and they utilized the opportunity with AI to really show that identity is at the center point of [security].”

In particular, Palo Alto Networks has shown that it is massively important to have tightly integrated capabilities in other areas of security to really do identity protection effectively, he said.

That is, “they aren’t just buying pieces, and then people have to figure out how to put it together. They were very thoughtful on where [CyberArk] fit, how it fit, what their approach was,” Hurley said. “It really does show that Nikesh is thinking way out ahead of a lot of other [vendors].”

During the call Tuesday, Arora noted that Idira meets both longstanding identity and privileged access needs as well as emerging requirements for securing the usage of AI agents.

“Idira addresses this shift by democratizing modern [privileged access management] controls across all users and extending protection to agentic identities, which represent the primary attack vector of the future,” he said.

Execution during the recent quarter—Palo Alto Networks third quarter of its fiscal 2026, ended April 30—was “very strong” when it came to the Idira business, Arora said.

About 1,000 customer engagements have already been initiated involving teams from both Palo Alto Networks and CyberArk, and “we’ve sustained CyberArk’s growth trajectory while improving its profitability profile through our integration initiatives,” he said.

“Given our rapid progress, we're now three to six months ahead of our original timeline for converging CyberArk’s profitability with our own—a milestone we expect to reach with the next 12 to 18 months,” Arora said.

Beating Expectations

For the company’s fiscal Q4 overall, Palo Alto Networks reported that revenue climbed 31 percent, from the same period a year earlier, to reach $3 billion. That came in above the Wall Street analyst consensus estimate for the quarter of $2.94 billion.

The revenue figure included $388 million from the company’s acquisitions of CyberArk and observability provider Chronosphere.

Non-GAAP earnings during the quarter, meanwhile, reached 85 cents per share, beating estimates by 5 cents per share.

‘This Is Existential For Me’

Looking ahead, Arora signaled that the stakes are high for the success of the CyberArk acquisition for reasons beyond the latest quarterly results.

“CyberArk is our chance at Palo Alto to prove that we are capable of doing amazing, large acquisitions. We're capable of integrating large teams,” he said. “And if I can prove that, the market will give me the license to [pursue large M&A] again. So, this is existential for me. It's existential for my team. And they know it.”

Ultimately, Arora said, “we're going to work hard to make sure CyberArk succeeds, allowing us to do more and more of that in the future at Palo Alto Networks.”