BlackBerry Ltd. has completed its largest acquisition ever, the Waterloo, Ont.-based company announced today.
First announced November 2018, the $1.4 billion acquisition of Cylance is a major move for BlackBerry, which has had its eyes on Cylance’s security solutions – most of which include embedded AI and machine learning capabilities – for some time. BlackBerry has made it clear that the endgame is to integrate those capabilities into its own end-to-end secure communications portfolio, and accelerate the development of BlackBerry Spark, the secure communications platform for the Internet of Things.
John Chen, BlackBerry CEO, said today’s announcement brings the company one step closer towards becoming the world’s most trusted AI-cybersecurity company.
“Securing endpoints and the data that flows between them is absolutely critical in today’s hyper-connected world,” said Chen. “By adding Cylance’s technology to our arsenal of cybersecurity solutions we will help enterprises intelligently connect, protect and build secure endpoints that users can trust.”
The news also has major implications for partners. Cylance revenue is 100 per cent driven by channel sales, and in an interview with CDN in November, CEO, president, and founder of Cylance Stuart McClure – who is now president of BlackBerry Cylance – said partners should be excited.
“This is a huge opportunity for them to sell more, to sell deeper, to sell broader. I think every partner will be super-excited about this.”
As a result of the deal, BlackBerry will onboard Cylance’s 3,500 customers, which includes 20 per cent of the Fortune 500.
