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Imperva Acquires Prevoty, Gains Channel Partner Momentum

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Chris Haylen
Chris Haylen

Imperva has acquired DevOps application security specialist Prevoty for $140 million. At the same time, Imperva is doubling down on its partner initiatives -- including traditional channel partners plus MSPs, MSSPs, cloud partners, hosting firms and strategic alliance members, the company told Wall Street analysts.

In a prepared statement about the Prevoty deal, Imperva CEO Chris Hylen said:

“The acquisition is expected to advance our hybrid security strategy and further our mission to deliver best-in-class cybersecurity solutions. Prevoty complements current Imperva application and data security offerings. When combined with our on-premises and cloud products, it will help businesses better protect themselves from attacks, prevent breaches and monitor security across their digital business. Combined with Imperva insights offerings, Prevoty will further help to identify the true risks to customers’ application services.”

Imperva has extended employment offers to all Prevoty employees, and Prevoty’s Los Angeles office will become an Imperva location. Headcount figures associated with the deal were not disclosed. The buyout is expected to be finalized in Q3 2018.

Imperva Channel Partner Initiatives

On the sales front, Imperva appears to be investing heavily in its channel partner program. Hylen pointed to these metrics and milestones during an earnings call this week.

  • Hired a new head of global channel sales and increased our channel partner resources by approximately 50 percent since the start of the year. That includes channel account managers, channel SEs, channel marketing and program managers.
  • Grown partner-sourced bookings for new business (excluding renewals) more than 40 percent year-to-date.
  • Increased new customers acquired through partner opportunities by 18 percent year-to-date, with related bookings up 26 percent year-to-date.
  • Essentially doubled EMEA partner sourced bookings and new logos in the first half.

"We've made the decision to be a partner friendly company and I think that starting to pay off in some of the numbers," Hylen asserted.

Dave Woodcock has served as senior vice president of worldwide sales since April 2018, a boost from his former VP of international sales post at the company. Former Imperva global channel chief Karl Soderlund joined 8x8 in February 2017.

In the MSSP sector, Imperva promotes a SecureSphere platform for security configuration, provisioning, and management functions of customers’ on premise equipment. For MSPs, the company provides database, file and web security solutions, along with DDoS protection capabilities.

Imperva Revenue Results, Forecast

Imperva's revenue was $171.9 million in Q2 2018, up 40 percent compared to $122.4 million for Q2 2017.  Still, the company trimmed its overall revenue outlook for the year -- and Imperva's stock fell about 15 percent on the reduced guidance.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.