After a planned IPO and merger were both scrapped, Cybereason has found a suitor in the form of LevelBlue, a company formed in the wake of a spin-off of AT&T’s cybersecurity business.
LevelBlue, the AT&T Cybersecurity spin-off that’s become a standalone managed security solutions provider, said Tuesday that it would acquire cybersecurity firm Cybereason, which focuses on extended detection and response (XDR).
Financial terms of the deal for La Jolla, Calif.-based Cybereason were not disclosed.
LevelBlue said the addition of Cybereason’s advanced XDR platform, combined with capabilities from recently acquired managed detection and response specialist Trustwave and consulting firm Stroz Friedberg, would allow the company “to offer faster, more accurate detection and response, significantly reducing threat dwell times and containing threats before they spread.”
Cybereason — founded in 2012 in Israel by Lior Div, Yonatan Striem-Amit, and Yossi Naar — had raised a total of $955 million in funding, according to PitchBook. The company, which once flirted with the idea of an IPO but withdrew those plans and tried to sell itself instead, had until recently been headquartered in both Israel and Boston. A planned merger with TrustWave was scrapped this past March with LevelBlue eventually snapping up TrustWave a few months later. In 2022, Cybereason laid off 10 percent of its workforce.
Cybereason is backed by SoftBank, Google Cloud and Liberty Strategic Capital, a private equity firm headed by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. The company is currently led by Manish Narula.
As part of the announced deal with LevelBlue, SoftBank Corp., SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Liberty Strategic Capital will become investors in LevelBlue. Mnuchin, managing partner of Liberty Strategic Capital, will join LevelBlue’s board of directors.
LevelBlue said that both companies would continue to operate independently until the deal closes, and that it “remain(s) committed to serving our clients with excellence to advance their cyber objectives.”
