IBM announced Thursday that it had agreed to purchase Israel startup Trusteer. Trusteer is a cybersecurity specialist and has provided data and network protection services to clients in the financial services industry.
The acquisition of Trusteer is a big step towards IBM's expansion to the cybersecurity business. In its recent quarterly earnings statement, the company recorded USD25.7 billion in sales, of which showed figures that led the company to focus its shift for expansion in cloud technology. "Trusteer's expertise and superior technology in enterprise endpoint defense and advanced malware prevention will help our clients across all industries address the constantly evolving threats they are facing," Brendan Hannigan, General Manager of the Security Systems Division of IBM, said in a statement.
IBM will establish a new cybersecurity lab in Tel Aviv, Israel, and will employ no less than 200 internal employees as researchers and developers for the lab.
Although financial information regarding the acquisition were not made public, tech media site Techcrunch overheard a source saying that the acquisition was at USD1 billion. Techcrunch's conclusion followed an earlier lead from a Hebrew financial paper estimating the deal from USD800 million to USD 1 billion. Trusteer acquired a total of USD10.1 million in seed capital from angel investors and venture capitalists prior to the exit.
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