Tyler Cross
Published on: February 7, 2025
Cybersecurity firm Sophos recently finalized its acquisition of Secureworks for $859 million in an all-cash transaction. The deal to obtain Secureworks, a company specializing in threat detection and removal, began in October.
According to Sophos, the acquisition positions them to be the “leading pure-play” provider of managed threat detection systems. In a world where criminal ransomware attacks and state-sponsored hacking groups are on the rise, a leading cybersecurity firm stands to gain tremendous amounts of profit.
“The combination will enable Sophos to deliver an unparalleled security operations platform, featuring hundreds of built-in integrations for adaptive protection, detection, and response for mitigating cyberattacks,” said Sophos CEO Joe Levy. “The open and scalable platform helps organizations, especially those with diverse IT estates, safeguard current and future technology investments, providing greater operational efficiencies and return on cybersecurity spend.”
Secureworks was originally obtained by Dell in 2011 for $612 million. Since then, the company struggled to differentiate itself from other options on the market despite offering quality cybersecurity solutions.
Sophos, on the other hand, continued to grow in size and scope, including doubling its profits year-over-year between March 2023 and 2024. By acquiring one of its main competitors, it can carve out a larger market share, while accessing Secureworks technologies. The acquisition gives Sophos a customer base of over 28,000 organizations worldwide.
This is one of many large cybersecurity acquisitions happening around the world. For a while, cybersecurity was like the Wild West, with dozens of fragmented firms in a cutting-edge market. However, as threats ramp up in severity and companies begin conglomerating into one, a few remaining companies are clawing their way to the top.
“With the integration of Secureworks, our expanded services and product portfolio will provide even stronger end-to-end security solutions that will include identity threat detection and response (ITDR), next-gen SIEM and managed risk, all in a single open platform,” Levy said.
