CyberArk has announced it has agreed to acquire machine identity management firm Venafi from Thoma Bravo for $1.54 billion.
The acquisition will see CyberArk combine Venafi’s machine identity management capabilities with its own identity security offering to create a unified platform capable of tackling end-to-end machine identity at enterprise scale.
Expected to close in the second half of 2024, the acquisition will cost CyberArk around $1.54 billion, with approximately $1 billion in cash and $540 million in shares. Both companies’ board of directors have approved the deal.
In an announcement, Matt Cohen, CEO of CyberArk, said the acquisition “marks a pivotal milestone” for the company that will help facilitate its aim of securing every identity, both human and machine, with the right level of privilege controls.
“By combining forces with Venafi, we are expanding our abilities to secure machine identities in a cloud-first, generative AI, post-quantum world,” he said.
“Our integrated technologies, capabilities and expertise will address the needs of global enterprises and empower CISOs to defend against increasingly sophisticated attacks that leverage human and machine identities as part of the attack chain.”
The combined offering will bundle together Venafi’s certificate lifecycle management, private public key infrastructure (PKI), IoT identity management, and cryptographic code signing, with CyberArk’s secrets management capabilities.
CyberArk said this new unified platform, whether deployed as SaaS or hybrid, will provide speedier mitigation for organizations’ modern cloud environments, while the Venafi team’s customer-focused approach and expertise will help the business realize its growth ambitions.
“Venafi brings world-class talent who shares CyberArk’s customer-centric, people-first culture and a security-first mindset,” Cohen added. “We are thrilled to work with the Venafi team to capitalize on the tremendous growth opportunity in the identity security market.”
CyberArk eyes revenue boost with Venafi deal
Founded in 2000, Venafi specializes in machine identity management and securing machine-to-machine connections and communications. The firm’s offering works to orchestrate cryptographic keys and digital certificates for SSL/TLS, SSH, code signing, mobile, and IoT, while serving up global visibility of machine identities and their associated risks, as well as automated remediation.
With its strong PKI, certificate management, and cloud presence, CyberArk said Venafi’s solutions will add around $10 billion to its total addressable market, expanding it to approximately $60 billion.
Venafi will also add around $150 million in annual recurring revenue, with the transaction expected to be accretive to margins immediately thanks to “significant revenue synergies” through cross-sell, up-sell, and geographic expansion, CyberArk said.
“Over the course of our investment, Venafi has accelerated SaaS growth, expanded margins, and successfully created a best-in-class SaaS offering, setting the stage for continued innovation,” commented Chip Virnig, a partner at Thoma Bravo.
“We believe CyberArk is a great partner for Venafi and that the scaled end-to-end machine identity security platform created by this strategic combination will deliver significant value to shareholders.
