Florida-based security firm ReliaQuest has acquired London’s Digital Shadows for $160 million, the firms announced today.
Founded in 2011, and with around $58 million of funding to date, Digital Shadows offers threat intelligence and digital risk services. ReliaQuest will use this to augment its GreyMatter Open Extended Detection and Response (XDR) platform.
ReliaQuest, which completed a funding round in December valuing the company at more than $1 billion, boasts customers including American Fidelity, Campbells Soup, and its own investor, KKR.
“This is a world-first proposition to the market; we're going to be able to deliver outcomes very, very quickly from Digital Shadows’ intelligence powering up ReliaQuest’s response. Putting it together, we can deliver a lot of value very quickly, with more visibility than any security team has ever had before,” said Alastair Paterson, CEO and co-founder of Digital Shadows, in a video announcing the acquisition.
He said the companies had a good fit, including in their geographic focus: “We were coming off our record year, record sales, record retention, and then Brian comes along with the rocket ship that is ReliaQuest, one of the most valuable security companies in existence… and then you look at… the product line up and how well that matches up, you look at the cultural fit, and then even the geographic fit, right? We have a phenomenal presence in EMEA.”
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Brian Murphy, CEO of ReliaQuest, said: “Whether it's their world-class threat research team, whether it's their phenomenal sales organization, marketing organization, great software development and product teams, they really do have a world-class team there. And that's something that, from a ReliaQuest perspective, when you get to see what world-class teams can accomplish when they come together and they work together – it's going to be a lot of fun.”
Digital Shadows is less open about its customer base, but does offer case studies on how the firm can help businesses hunt down leaks of their own resources online, and reduce their attack surface.
“The world-class threat intelligence that Digital Shadows has is going to provide an exponentially better service to our customers. It's going to allow them to be proactive, they'll be able to see the threats sooner, which increases their visibility. They're going to have less noise ,which can reduce their complexity, and they're going to be able to make proactive decisions, which helps them manage their risk,” said Michael McPherson, SVP of security operations at ReliaQuest.
The acquisition is subject to board and regulatory approval.
