We're going to look back at these insane buys in a few decades as unreasonable, because they simply are. You can have an entire county for $24B.
Which country? (Not necessarily doubting you, just curious.)
Palo Alto Networks agrees to buy CyberArk for $25B
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Re: Palo Alto Networks agrees to buy CyberArk for $25B
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, Palo Alto can acquire Cyberark and then use its sales organization to up-sell its customers on CyberArk's offering. I've seen this at Microsoft where acquiring startups that provide capabilities and then incorporating them into Azure or Defender led to the usage of those capabilities skyrocketing and those particular acquisitions (not going to specifics because NDA) ended up being profitable.
I would sort of naively imagine that that would work at a smaller price tag but at $25 billion it would be tough to make it pencil out.
Even moreso when you take into account that CyberArk is not exactly a beloved product because it involves a lot of hassle. At 5-6B it may have been reasonable or simply a portfolio add that's cheap because of shared ownership/refinance but for 25B they could have bought Okta, which would have added much more value to their portfolio...
Re: Palo Alto Networks agrees to buy CyberArk for $25B
#23We're going to look back at these insane buys in a few decades as unreasonable, because they simply are. You can have an entire county for $24B.
Try to cash out that pile of stocks and instantly the bubble pops. The values are virtual
Re: Palo Alto Networks agrees to buy CyberArk for $25B
#24[dead]
Re: Palo Alto Networks agrees to buy CyberArk for $25B
#25Both are legacy dinosaurs, it makes sense they start eating each other.
Palo Alto is a legacy dinosaur? Pretty sure they are the current market leader in both firewalls and SOAR.
Re: Palo Alto Networks agrees to buy CyberArk for $25B
#26We're going to look back at these insane buys in a few decades as unreasonable, because they simply are. You can have an entire county for $24B.
Which country? (Not necessarily doubting you, just curious.)
25B is the market cap of Ericsson, which is probably responsible for something like 5% of Sweden's GDP.
25B might not be a whole country, but it's definitely a whole country's phone network and internet infrastructure.
Re: Palo Alto Networks agrees to buy CyberArk for $25B
#27We're going to look back at these insane buys in a few decades as unreasonable, because they simply are. You can have an entire county for $24B.
Which country? (Not necessarily doubting you, just curious.)
1. Go shopping https://www.privateislandsonline.com
2. Use the remaining billions to purchase a military force
3. Declare yourself sovereign
4. Export your goods and services at reasonable prices.
5. Be recognized by international organizations
6. You're literally a country for less than $24B
Re: Palo Alto Networks agrees to buy CyberArk for $25B
#28Re: Palo Alto Networks agrees to buy CyberArk for $25B
#29In 2024 Cyberark had $1 billion in revenue. Can anyone comment on how this $25B number makes sense for Palo Alto?
PANW's current strategy is "platformization" - to be a one-stop shop for anything cybersecurity. The CYBR acquisition fills large product holes in the current PANW portfolio, with little overlap.
The $25B price doesn't reflect a multiple on $1B, exactly. It represents potential sales of the CYBR product portfolio to current PANW customers, plus potential sales of the PANW portfolio to CYBR customers, at a multiple of ARR, negotiating a portion of which to current CYBR shareholders, which is above the market price for CYBR shares, representing the risk that such upsells may not succeed in practice.
Where the acquisition gets interesting is in what CYBR's identity products mean for PANW's portfolio, once integrated. SOAR gets to be much more deterministic if your SIEM knows all of the system's trusted principal identities instead of trying to piece it together based on network research, voluntary reports, and heuristics. In theory, an integrated product will deliver better security. But the question remains whether PANW will succeed at such integration or not. PANW has a long history of successful acquisitions, so, there's that...
Re: Palo Alto Networks agrees to buy CyberArk for $25B
#30Let a thousand shitty obstacles to getting work done bloom.