AT&T buys cybersecurity and threat intelligence company AlienVault

With billions of dollars of war chest, AT&T announced today that it’s buying San Mateo, California-based cybersecurity and threat intelligence startup, AlienVault. The financial terms were not disclosed. The agreement has been approved by both companies. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018. The completion of this transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Until the transaction closes, each company will continue to operate independently.

The acquisition will enable AT&T to expand its enterprise-grade security solutions portfolio and offerings to millions of small and medium-sized businesses. AlienVault’s innovative technology and security talent will help accelerate AT&T’s vision of enabling organizations of all sizes with effective cybersecurity solutions.

The agreement will combine AlienVault’s expertise in threat intelligence with AT&T’s cybersecurity solutions portfolio that includes threat detection and prevention as well as response technologies and services. After the acquisition closes, AT&T business customers will be able to access our unified security management platform that helps make organizations more effective at threat detection and response, by giving them access to a broad set of enterprise-grade security capabilities.

Founded in 2007 by Julio Casal, AlienVault is known for its Open Threat Exchange (OTX) threat intelligence community platform and other services for detecting and responding to security threats. The company has raised $120 million in venture funding, with its last round of $52 million raised back in 2015. AlienVault provides a platform with built-in security controls for organizations to address their compliance and threat management needs.

According to a 2017 study¹ conducted by the Ponemon Institute, more than 61% of small and medium-sized businesses have been breached in the last 12 months, up from 55% in 2016. “Regardless of size or industry, businesses today need cyber threat detection and response technologies and services,” said Thaddeus Arroyo, CEO, AT&T Business. “The current threat landscape has shifted this from a luxury for some, to a requirement for all.”

“AlienVault’s expertise in threat intelligence will improve our ability to help organizations detect and respond to cybersecurity attacks. Together, with our enterprise-grade detection, response and remediation capabilities, we’re providing scalable, intelligent, affordable security for business customers of all sizes,” said Arroyo.

AT&T is positioned as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape for worldwide managed security services. The report cites that AT&T has made security a top focus. AT&T is making investments related to advanced threat detection and analysis, threat intelligence, virtualized security functions, and complementary services.2

AT&T will continue to invest in and build on AlienVault’s foundational Unified Security Management platform and Open Threat Exchange, the world’s first and largest open threat intelligence community, as the company integrates AlienVault into AT&T’s cybersecurity suite of services.

“We’re thrilled to join forces with AT&T. They bring a robust cybersecurity portfolio with an industry-leading technology ecosystem,” said Barmak Meftah, president and CEO, AlienVault. “This deal accelerates our ability to deliver on the AlienVault mission, which is to democratize threat detection and response to companies of all sizes.”

In today’s digital world, businesses need a cyber risk management strategy to reduce risk across their entire ecosystem. After the acquisition closes, AlienVault will be a key part of AT&T’s Edge-to-Edge IntelligenceSM capabilities, spanning from the core of a company’s network to all endpoints, to reveal actionable intelligence in near-real time.