SecurityWeek Study: Over 430 Cybersecurity Mergers & Acquisitions Announced in 2021

GRC, MSSP firms powered more than 430 cybersecurity M&A deals in 2021

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SecurityWeek, a leading provider of cybersecurity news and information to global enterprises, today released the results of a study on cybersecurity mergers and acquisitions announced in 2021.

SecurityWeek found that more than 430 cybersecurity-related mergers and acquisitions were announced in 2021, with a majority involving organizations in North America and Europe.

Financial details have been made public for 88 deals, including 11 where companies were acquired for more than a billion dollars. More than 60 acquisitions involved tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

Some of the largest deals include STG’s acquisition of McAfee Enterprise and FireEye, Permira acquiring Mimecast, Thoma Bravo acquiring Proofpoint ($12.3B), Okta acquiring Auth0 ($6.5B), and NortonLifeLock acquiring Avast ($8.6B).

There has been a significant increase in cybersecurity M&A activity, largely driven by the Covid-19 pandemic — enterprises have invested more in cybersecurity and cloud architecture due to employees working remotely — as well as major cyberattacks, such as the ransomware attack that impacted the Colonial Pipeline system.

Many cybersecurity M&A deals in 2021 involved companies that provide governance, risk management and compliance (GRC), managed security services (MSSP), network security, identity, and cloud security. More than 40 mergers and acquisitions involved government contractors, and 19 involved private equity firms.

The complete study, which includes additional data and insights, is available on SecurityWeek.com.

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