10. Startups Are Still Attractive Acquisition Targets, But Some Markets Are Maturing
Smaller security vendors will be acquired in 2019 for talent purposes, the company's technology, or to boost sales for legacy vendors, said Netskope CEO Sanjay Beri. In addition, he said some large publicly-traded security players that have become stagnant due to their on-premise, box-oriented architecture, will likely be gobbled up by private equity or split into separate consumer and enterprise organizations.
YL Ventures Managing Partner Yoav Leitersdorf believes at least five of the following 10 cybersecurity vendors will be acquired in 2019: Avanan; Menlo Security; Netskope; Nozomi Networks; PatternEx; Recorded Future; SafeBreach; SecurityScorecard; vArmour; and Valimail.
Following BlackBerry's blockbuster acquisition of Cylance in November, less activity is expected in the endpoint protection space in 2019 since the winners in that category have already emerged, said YL Ventures Partner Ofer Schreiber. In addition, Schreiber said a downturn in the blockchain market could negatively impact blockchain-related security investments in 2019.
