Threat Detection: AT&T set to Acquire AlienVault, Expand Security Offering

AT&T is all set to acquire AlienVault, a privately held company based in San Mateo, Calif. The acquisition of AlienVault will enable AT&T to expand its enterprise-grade security solutions portfolio and offerings to millions of small and medium-sized businesses.

AlienVault’s innovative technology and security talent will help accelerate AT&T’s vision of enabling organizations of all sizes with effective cybersecurity solutions.

The acquisition will combine AlienVault’s expertise in threat intelligence with AT&T’s cybersecurity solutions portfolio that includes threat detection and prevention as well as response technologies and services. After the acquisition closes, AT&T business customers will be able to access our unified security management platform that helps make organizations more effective at threat detection and response, by giving them access to a broad set of enterprise-grade security capabilities.

According to a 2017 study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, more than 61 percent of small and medium-sized businesses have been breached in the last 12 months, up from 55 percent in 2016.

“Regardless of size or industry, businesses today need cyber threat detection and response technologies and services,” said Thaddeus Arroyo, CEO, AT&T Business. “The current threat landscape has shifted this from a luxury for some, to a requirement for all.”

“AlienVault’s expertise in threat intelligence will improve our ability to help organizations detect and respond to cybersecurity attacks. Together, with our enterprise-grade detection, response and remediation capabilities, we’re providing scalable, intelligent, affordable security for business customers of all sizes,” said Arroyo.

AT&T is positioned as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape for worldwide managed security services. The report cites that AT&T has made security a top focus. AT&T is making investments related to advanced threat detection and analysis, threat intelligence, virtualized security functions, and complementary services.

AT&T will continue to invest in and build on AlienVault’s foundational Unified Security Management platform and Open Threat Exchange, the world’s first and largest open threat intelligence community, as the company integrates AlienVault into AT&T’s cybersecurity suite of services.

“We’re thrilled to join forces with AT&T. They bring a robust cybersecurity portfolio with an industry-leading technology ecosystem,” said Barmak Meftah, president and CEO, AlienVault. “This deal accelerates our ability to deliver on the AlienVault mission, which is to democratize threat detection and response to companies of all sizes.”

In today’s digital world, businesses need a cyber risk management strategy to reduce risk across their entire ecosystem. After the acquisition closes, AlienVault will be a key part of AT&T’s Edge-to-Edge IntelligenceSM capabilities, spanning from the core of a company’s network to all endpoints, to reveal actionable intelligence in near-real time.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is not expected to have a material effect on AT&T’s results. And it does not change the company’s plans to reduce its net-debt-to-adjusted-EBITDA ratio to the 2.5x range by the end of the first year after the close of Time Warner and to its historical range by the end of the fourth year after close.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018. The completion of this transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Until the transaction closes, each company will continue to operate independently.