Just a month after announcing the acquisition of Kubernetes security start-up Octarine, VMware has now announced that it is also acquiring Californian cybersecurity firm Lastline.
On Thursday (4 June), Californian cybersecurity start-up Lastline announced that it was being acquired by VMware. The news was confirmed in a blogpost written by Lastline CEO John DiLullo.
DiLullo said that by joining forces with VMware, the cybersecurity business will be able to offer additional capabilities to its customers, while bringing comprehensive security solutions for the data centre, branch office and remote users to market.
Founded in 2012, the start-up has developed an AI-powered network detection and response platform to protect on-premises networks, email and public cloud workloads from cyber threats.
Investors in the start-up include Redpoint, e.ventures, Barracuda Networks, NTT Finance and Dell Technologies Capital.
DiLullo said: “As one combined company, we will be able to offer an even broader array of integrated security solutions for both networking and security, and complement many of VMware’s established solutions for cloud, data centre, end user and workload protection.”
The CEO said that Lastline’s founders and employees are among the “most well-regarded cybersecurity experts in the world”, with the workforce holding 15 PhDs. DiLullo said that the team includes four of the world’s most published cybersecurity researchers.
“Our academic heritage together with its many rigors has created an enviable culture of innovation and integrity at Lastline,” DiLullo said.
“VMware’s heritage and culture is similar in many ways, and our mutual commitments to customer success and innovation will create a fertile ecosystem in which our employees will be able to thrive and our customers and partners will be able to enjoy leading solutions.”
Before Lastline or VMware confirmed the news of the acquisition, TechCrunch reported on the deal between the two companies. A source informed the publication of the acquisition, telling TechCrunch that VMware will lay off 40pc of the Lastline workforce as part of the acquisition.
This makes up roughly 50 employees, according to TechCrunch. Neither VMware or Lastline responded when TechCrunch asked for comments.
Ahead of the acquisition, VMware published its Q1 earnings report for 2020 with revenues up 12pc on the same period last year, at $2.73bn. VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said that the revenue boost was sparked by the shift to remote work.
According to TechCrunch, VMware’s focus in recent months has been on cloud-native hybrid and multi-cloud deployments, “which makes Lastline a pretty obvious fit for its overall strategy.” Just a month ago, VMware acquired cloud-native security platform Octarine.
Read the original article and additional information at Cyware Social