Friday, November 16, 2018

Cylance Acquired By BlackBerry For $1.4 Billion

Irvine-based cybersecurity software developer Cylance has been acquired by BlackBerry, in a deal worth $1.4 billion in cash, BlackBerry announced this morning. Cylance, develops artificial intelligence-based cybersecurity software, which detects and reacts to cybersecurity threats. Cylance was co-founded and is led by Chairman and CEO Stuart McClure. The company was founded in 2012, and was venture backed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, Dell Technologies Capital, Citi Ventures, and Insight Venture Partners, among others. Although BlackBerry did not discuss Cylance's current revenues, Cylance had said in June that it expected $130M in annual revenues for its fiscal 2018 year. BlackBerry said it expects Cylance to operate as a separate business unit within BlackBerry Limited. In addition, BlackBerry said that it will accelerate development of its BlackBerry Spark EoT platform by using Cylance's embeddable AI technology; BlackBerry Spark is a secure communications technology that BlackBerry has been creating which incorporates encryption and security features, for what it calls a "chip-to-edge" communications platform.