Sophos finalizes $859 million acquisition of rival Secureworks – Source: www.csoonline.com

Sophos has announced the completion of its $859 million acquisition of Secureworks. The deal makes Sophos one of the largest providers of managed detection and response (MDR) services, with the company now supporting more than 28,000 businesses around the world.

According to the companies, the acquisition will enable Sophos to offer a best-in-class, open, and scalable security operations platform with hundreds of built-in integrations for adaptive protection, detection, and response to mitigate cyberattacks. The platform helps organizations, especially those with diverse IT assets, safeguard current and future IT investments, providing greater operational efficiency and ROI on cybersecurity spend, according to Sophos.

Sophos X-Ops is also expanding its threat intelligence and security services capabilities with the addition of the Secureworks Counter Threat Unit and security operations and advisory teams.

This transaction is positive news for the channel, as Sophos remains committed to delivering cutting-edge security services and technologies that empower its global community of partners, managed service providers (MSPs), and managed security service providers (MSSPs). This includes expanding its reach, improving operational scalability and providing stronger defenses to the businesses that need the ability to effectively defend against today’s constant and complex cyberattacks.

Sophos CEO Joe Levy said: “With the integration of Secureworks, our expanded portfolio of products and services will deliver even more robust end-to-end security solutions including identity threat detection and response (ITDR), next-generation SIEM, and managed risk — all on a single, open platform.”

He added: “We will also be able to further advance our AI, threat intelligence, and attack research through more diverse and in-depth global telemetry that is tailored by analysts to the real world. Across the board, we are very excited about this accelerated next chapter for Sophos.”

In the short term, both companies will operate as usual, working with their respective partners, MSPs, and MSSPs around the world to distribute their existing security services and technology. Their sales and customer experience teams will work to support existing customers, assist with renewals, and develop current and future business opportunities.