VMware to acquire Carbon Black for $2.1 billion - cloud endpoint protection

VMware agreed to acquire Carbon Black in an all-cash transaction for $26 per share, representing an enterprise value of $2.1 billion.

Carbon Black is a leading next-generation security cloud provider with more than 5,600 customers and 500 partners globally. Carbon Black's cloud-native security platform leverages big data and behavioral analytics to provide comprehensive endpoint protection. The company analyzes more than 500B events per day across millions of global endpoints. The company is based in Waltham, MA.

VMware said the combination of Carbon Black’s solutions with its own security offerings, including AppDefense, Workspace ONE, NSX and SecureState, will create a modern security cloud platform for any application, running on any cloud, on any device.

“The security industry is broken and ineffective with too many fragmented solutions and no cohesive platform architecture. By bringing Carbon Black into the VMware family, we are now taking a huge step forward in security and delivering an enterprise-grade platform to administer and protect workloads, applications and networks,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO, VMware. “With this acquisition, VMware will also take a significant leadership position in security for the new age of modern applications delivered from any cloud to any device.”

“Today marks an exciting milestone for Carbon Black, VMware and the entire cybersecurity industry,” said Patrick Morley, CEO, Carbon Black. “We now have the opportunity to seamlessly integrate Carbon Black’s cloud-native endpoint protection platform into all of VMware’s control points. This type of bold move is exactly what the IT and security industries have been looking to see for a very long time. We look forward to working with the VMware team to continue delivering a modern security cloud platform to customers around the world. Additionally, we’re pleased that today’s transaction provides Carbon Black’s shareholders with immediate and substantial value.”