BlackBerry has announced to acquire Cylance, an US-based artificial intelligence and cybersecurity leader, for $1.4 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close prior to the end of BlackBerry’s current fiscal year (February 2019).
“Cylance’s leadership in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity will immediately complement our entire portfolio, UEM and QNX in particular. We are very excited to onboard their team and leverage our newly combined expertise. We believe adding Cylance’s capabilities to our trusted advantages in privacy, secure mobility, and embedded systems will make BlackBerry Spark indispensable to realizing the Enterprise of Things,” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO of BlackBerry.
Cylance which is a pioneer in applying artificial intelligence, algorithmic science, and machine learning to cybersecurity software has proven itself to be effective at predicting and preventing known and unknown threats to fixed endpoints.
Founded in 2012, Cylance generates recurring revenue from over 3,500 active enterprise customers, including more than 20 per cent of the Fortune 500 and has become a market leader with an advanced and lightweight agent that resides on the endpoint, operates both online and off, and requires a minimum of memory and power to function.
“Our highly skilled cybersecurity workforce and market leadership in next-generation endpoint solutions will be a perfect fit within BlackBerry where our customers, teams and technologies will gain immediate benefits from BlackBerry’s global reach,” said Stuart McClure, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Cylance.
Cylance will operate as a separate business unit within BlackBerry Limited.
