AT&T buys threat intelligence company AlienVault
Video: AT&T acquires cybersecurity company AlienVault
Fresh off of its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, AT&T said Tuesday that it's buying AlienVault, a cybersecurity and threat intelligence company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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Based in San Mateo, California, AlienVault is known for its Open Threat Exchange (OTX) threat intelligence community platform and other services for detecting and responding to security threats.
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The company has racked up around $120 million in venture funding, with its last round of $52 million raised back in 2015. At the time, the company was moving toward an initial public offering, but that option is clearly off the table now that its being absorbed by AT&T.
Nonetheless, AT&T said it plans to continue investing in and building on AlienVault's key platforms, and will integrate the technology into its suite of managed cybersecurity offerings.
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Its general end-game is to spur competition among security vendors in the marketplace catering to both SMBs and enterprises.
"AlienVault's expertise in threat intelligence will improve our ability to help organizations detect and respond to cybersecurity attacks," said Thaddeus Arroyo, CEO of AT&T Business. "Together, with our enterprise-grade detection, response and remediation capabilities, we're providing scalable, intelligent, affordable security for business customers of all sizes."
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AT&T has had a busy buying season so far this summer. Last month, the company bought AppNexus, an ad-tech company, in a bid to build a digital advertising juggernaut to go along with its Time Warner purchase. The deal suggests that AT&T wants to better compete for ad dollars against Facebook and Google and be more of a resource for chief marketing officers.
AT&T expects the AlienVault deal to close in the third quarter.
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