A private investor group along with management team members have acquired managed detection and response (MDR) and managed security services provider (MSSP) SilverSky from BAE Systems. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
This is M&A deal number 519 that MSSP Alert and sister site ChannelE2E have covered so far in 2020. See the full M&A deal list here. Also, over 40 MSSP M&A deals have been reported since 2018.
SilverSky, essentially a Top 250 MSSP while under BAE Systems' ownership, was formed in 2013 through the combined assets of Perimeter eSecurity and USA.NET.
Fast forward to present day, and SilverSky's annual revenues are roughly $50 million, and the company supports more than 3,000 customers worldwide -- apparently down from the 5,500 customers that SilverSky supported when BAE acquired the business in 2014. Key SilverSky focus areas include compliance-minded customers such as banks, credit unions, financial institutions, healthcare and insurance organizations.
SilverSky: New CEO, Biz Dev Leader
Under terms of the deal, Richard Dobrow is now CEO of SilverSky, and Cary Conrad will lead business development initiatives. Both executives are deeply familiar with SilverSky and the MSSP market. Indeed:
- CEO Richard Dobrow is co-founder of outSOC and was CEO of Perimeter eSecurity -- the precursor to SilverSky. outSOC provides security operations center as a service (SOCaaS) that channel partners can white label.
- NTT Security veteran and investor Cary Conrad led the SilverLake buyout initiative, along with support from members of the current management team.
In a prepared statement about the deal, Dobrow and Conrad said:
"We are very excited to assist our customers with their cybersecurity and compliance needs. Many of our original customers are still with the Company and we are thrilled to be in a position to re-engage with them and assist them in driving their businesses forward.”
BAE Systems: Additional Cybersecurity Moves
Meanwhile, former SilverSky owner BAE Systems remains on the move in the cyber market. Applied Intelligence, a subsidiary of BAE Systems, launched SOC.OS in July 2020. SOC.OS helps internal security teams manage alerts produced by threat protection and detection tools. Also around July 2020, SOC.OS has secured £2 million (nearly $2.3 million) in funding from venture capital firms Hoxton Ventures and Speedinvest.
