Arctic Wolf acquires Cylance from BlackBerry for $160 million

The once-prominent technology firm bought Cylance for $1.4 billion in 2018.

Minnesota-based Arctic Wolf, a cybersecurity operations firm, announced an agreement Monday to acquire BlackBerry’s Cylance business for $160 million, a stark drop from the $1.4 billion BlackBerry initially paid to acquire the startup in 2018. 

Arctic Wolf is integrating Cylance’s AI-powered endpoint security technology into its platform to broaden its security solutions. With this acquisition, Arctic Wolf plans to bolster its presence in the competitive cybersecurity market, leveraging Cylance’s technology. It marks Arctic Wolf’s sixth acquisition to date, enhancing its portfolio with previous acquisitions such as RootSecure and Tetra Defense.

The sale includes a cash payment and approximately 5.5 million common shares of Arctic Wolf, with BlackBerry set to receive around $80 million at closing and the remainder following in fiscal 2025. The deal is expected to be finalized in BlackBerry’s fiscal Q4.

John Giamatteo, CEO of BlackBerry, highlighted the sale’s benefits for all stakeholders involved, ensuring continuity for Cylance’s clients. “Our customers will realize the benefits of continuity of service and the expertise that Arctic Wolf provides,” he said in a statement, noting that BlackBerry will remain involved in the sector as a reseller and shareholder post-transaction.

Cylance, founded in 2012 and acquired by BlackBerry in 2018, initially anticipated a strengthened position in the cybersecurity space. Prior to the acquisition, the tool was instrumental in discovering the malware responsible for the historic breach at the Office of Personnel Management. However, market shifts toward threat detection and response — capabilities that Cylance lacked — dampened its market hold. 

Nick Schneider, Arctic Wolf’s CEO, expressed the imperative need for integrated security operations, identifying weakness in isolated point solutions. “Security has an operations and effectiveness problem and endpoint solutions alone have failed to live up to the outcomes they have promised for years,” Schneider stated, emphasizing the need for a unified platform that effectively minimizes risk and enhances resilience.

The planned integration of Cylance’s AI capabilities into Arctic Wolf’s open-XDR Aurora platform is set to advance endpoint security deliverables and harness automated intelligence to preemptively counteract cybersecurity threats.

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