Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Friday, March 29, 2024

VMware Enters Definitive Agreement to Acquire Carbon Black 

PALO ALTO, Calif., August 22, 2019 – VMware, Inc., a leading innovator in enterprise software, and Carbon Black, a leader in cloud-native endpoint protection, today announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement by which VMware will acquire Carbon Black in an all cash transaction for $26 per share, representing an enterprise value of $2.1 billion. Following the close of the transaction, VMware will be positioned to provide a highly differentiated, intrinsic security cloud that will better protect enterprise workloads and clients through big data, behavioral analytics and AI.

Carbon Black is a leading next-generation security cloud provider with more than 5,600 customers and 500 partners globally. The company’s innovative cloud-native security platform leverages big data and behavioral analytics to provide comprehensive endpoint protection against even the most advanced cyberattacks.  The combination of Carbon Black’s solutions with VMware’s security offerings, including AppDefense, Workspace ONE, NSX and SecureState, will create a modern security cloud platform for any application, running on any cloud, on any device.  This combined offering will provide customers advanced threat detection and in-depth application behavior insight to stop sophisticated attacks and accelerate responses.

The distribution and enterprise reach of VMware and Dell will further accelerate the adoption of Carbon Black in the enterprise, both through direct selling and through partners, including leading managed security players, channel partners and system integrators.

“The security industry is broken and ineffective with too many fragmented solutions and no cohesive platform architecture. By bringing Carbon Black into the VMware family, we are now taking a huge step forward in security and delivering an enterprise-grade platform to administer and protect workloads, applications and networks,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO, VMware. “With this acquisition, VMware will also take a significant leadership position in security for the new age of modern applications delivered from any cloud to any device.”

“Today marks an exciting milestone for Carbon Black, VMware and the entire cybersecurity industry,” said Patrick Morley, CEO, Carbon Black. “We now have the opportunity to seamlessly integrate Carbon Black’s cloud-native endpoint protection platform into all of VMware’s control points. This type of bold move is exactly what the IT and security industries have been looking to see for a very long time. We look forward to working with the VMware team to continue delivering a modern security cloud platform to customers around the world. Additionally, we’re pleased that today’s transaction provides Carbon Black’s shareholders with immediate and substantial value.”

Under the terms of the transaction, which is structured as a cash tender offer, Carbon Black shareholders who validly tender (and do not properly withdraw) their shares in Carbon Black, will receive $26 per share in cash, representing an enterprise value of $2.1 billion. The transaction is expected to be funded through cash on the balance sheet, and by accessing short-term borrowing capacity. Closing of the transaction is expected in the second half of VMware’s fiscal year 2020, ending January 31, 2020, and is subject to customary conditions, including, VMware’s acquisition of at least a majority of the shares of Carbon Black, and the expiration or termination of the required waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended, among others.

Advisors

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as financial advisor and Morrison & Foerster LLP served as legal counsel to VMware.  Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC served as exclusive financial advisor and Goodwin Procter LLP served as legal counsel to Carbon Black.

Investor Conference Call

The company will host a previously announced conference call today at 1:30 p.m. PT/ 4:30 p.m. ET to review financial results, discuss the proposed transaction, and business outlook. A live web broadcast of the event will be available on the VMware investor relations website at http://ir.vmware.com. Slides will accompany the web broadcast. The replay of the webcast and slides will be available on the website for two months. In addition, six quarters of historical data for unearned revenue will also be made available at http://ir.vmware.com in conjunction with the conference call.

About Carbon Black

Carbon Black is a leader in cloud-native endpoint protection dedicated to keeping the world safe from cyberattacks. The CB Predictive Security Cloud (PSC) consolidates endpoint protection and IT operations into an endpoint protection platform (EPP) that prevents advanced threats, provides actionable insight and enables businesses of all sizes to simplify operations. By analyzing billions of security events per day across the globe, Carbon Black has key insights into attackers’ behaviors, enabling customers to detect, respond to and stop emerging attacks.


Source: Carbon Black 

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