Israeli cyber startup Armis nears deal to be sold to ServiceNow for up to $7b — report
Founded in 2016, Armis has a cyberthreat exposure management platform that protects firms from risks as they connect all sorts of devices to their systems
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel
Israeli-founded cybersecurity unicorn Armis Security is in advanced talks to be acquired by US software company ServiceNow Inc. in a deal that could be worth up to $7 billion, Bloomberg News reported over the weekend.
The report cited a number of people familiar with the situation, who said the deal could be announced within days. Armis declined to comment on the talks when contacted by The Times of Israel.
Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, ServiceNow has a market value of almost $180 billion and is the developer of an AI-driven software platform for workflow processes.
The advanced takeover talks come just a month after Armis raised $435 million in fresh capital from investors, taking the company’s valuation to $6.1 billion. The firm said the proceeds of the November funding round will be used for a three-year plan to increase revenues and prepare for an initial public offering.
Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Armis was founded in 2016 by Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO, and Nadir Izrael, CTO, to develop a software system that would allow companies to adopt new connected devices without fear of cyberattacks.
The cybersecurity platform automatically discovers, monitors and provides information about all devices — from traditional laptops and smartphones to smart TVs, webcams, printers, HVAC systems, industrial control systems and medical devices — before they connect to an organization’s network. It manages an organization’s cyber risk exposure in real time and quarantines any suspicious and malicious devices.
Its customers include global brands such as Colgate-Palmolive, United Airlines, Allegro MicroSystems, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Mondelēz International.
Over the past two years, Armis has bought three companies, including Israeli cyber startup Silk Security, to bolster its cyberthreat exposure management platform and better protect businesses and organizations as they connect all manner of devices and systems across cloud and AI-driven systems.
If the deal goes through, it will mark Armis’s second exit. In 2020, US-based Insight Partners, a venture capital and private equity firm, bought a significant stake in Armis and will be the main beneficiary from the sale to ServiceNow.
That deal marked the largest ever for a private Israeli cybersecurity firm. Other investors in the cybersecurity firm are Goldman Sachs, Google’s venture capital arm CapitalG, Evolution Equity Partners, Brookfield Asset Management’s technology arm Brookfield Technology Partners, and General Catalyst.
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