Israeli cybersecurity firm IntSights to be acquired for $335 million
Boston-based Rapid7 says it will purchase startup to even odds for clients in ‘lopsided battle’ against expanding online threats
Luke Tress is a JTA reporter and a former editor and reporter in New York for The Times of Israel.
American cybersecurity firm Rapid7 said on Monday it was acquiring Israel’s IntSights Cyber Intelligence Ltd. for approximately $335 million.
IntSights, founded in Israel in 2015 by former IDF intelligence officers, provides clients with intelligence on external cyber threats by monitoring the dark web, among other measures.
The firm takes complex external data, turns it into contextualized intelligence and provides automated steps to counter the threat. IntSight’s technology allows for scalable real-time threat intelligence that can be integrated with customers’ existing security programs, according to a statement announcing the deal.
IntSights is based in New York and maintains offices in Tel Aviv, Boston, Singapore, Amsterdam, Dallas and Tokyo. Its clients include American Eagle, Ford, Teva, Hanes, Blackstone and Caesars Entertainment. It claims a return on investment of $2.1 million for clients after three years of using its threat protection suite.
The Boston-based Rapid7, founded in 2000, provides security visibility, analytics and automation that allows clients’ security teams to reduce vulnerabilities, detect malicious behavior, stymie attacks and automate some tasks. The firm has over 8,900 customers, it said.
The companies said their technology lightens the workload for security teams that are overburdened by the expanding landscape of online threats.
Rapid7 will pay the sum for IntSights in cash and stocks. IntSights will act as Rapid7’s research and development center in Israel, according to the Calcalist business daily. Rapid7 is publicly traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker RPD.
IntSights has previously garnered some $71 million in venture capital funding.
“We founded IntSights to make threat intelligence instantly accessible and actionable for organizations of any type or size,” said Guy Nizan, co-founder and CEO of IntSights. “We are excited to join Rapid7 to continue this mission and to bring our threat intelligence capabilities to even more customers.”
“Cyber security is a lopsided battle today and the odds consistently favor attackers,” said Corey Thomas, chairman and CEO of Rapid7. “Both IntSights and Rapid7 have a shared belief that organizations will succeed only when they have a unified view of internal and external threats, complete with contextualized intelligence and automated threat mitigation which will allow security teams to focus on the most critical threats. We look forward to working with IntSights to make this vision a reality for our customers.”
The acquisition comes amid a flurry of international attention on Israeli cybersecurity companies.
An international investigation this week claimed NSO Group’s cyber surveillance products were used by governments around the world to track political dissidents and journalists, some of whom were killed.
Last month, SentinelOne debuted on the New York Stock Exchange with a successful initial public offering of $1.2 billion, touted as the largest ever initial share offering by a cybersecurity firm. The company’s share price has climbed since the IPO.
Tel Aviv-based Riskified Ltd. filed a regulatory statement on Monday for the New York Stock Exchange, saying it aimed to sell 17.5 million shares that could raise over $300 million.
In the first half of the year, Israeli cybersecurity companies raised $3.4 billion in 50 deals and seven of them became unicorns, or private companies valued at over $1 billion, the Israel National Cyber Directorate said earlier this month.
More than a third of worldwide cybersecurity unicorns are Israelis, the data showed, with some 13 in Israel out of 30-33 globally, the directorate said.
