Cybersecurity and AI solutions available in the channel received a boost this past month with several mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in these areas.
After a busy April for M&A in the channel, May continued the trend with a number of big-dollar moves to help foster growth and innovation.
Let’s take a look at some of the key moves:
Alation to acquire Numbers Station
Data intelligence company Alation is making a play to help organizations build AI-driven analytics tools through the acquisition of Numbers Station, a startup building AI agents for data workflows.
The deal will help Alation enable organizations to develop and roll out AI-driven analytics tools that can operate automatically, while still adhering to proper business rules and maintaining context.
“Numbers Station has proven the impact AI agents can have in the enterprise when companies are able to trust this new way of working and brings an exceptional team that shares our obsession with empowering data users,” said Satyen Sangani, co-founder and CEO of Alation. “Together, we’re laying the foundation for the next decade of enterprise data intelligence– one where humans and agents collaborate seamlessly to turn data into action.”
Proofpoint acquires Hornetsecurity and Nuclei
Proofpoint has made two significant acquisitions, adding Hornetsecurity for over $1 billion to boost its cybersecurity prowess and Nuclei to enhance its market-leading digital communications governance (DCG) offering.
Through the acquisition of Hornetsecurity, Proofpoint will combine its human-centric security capabilities with the company’s Microsoft 365 security expertise. It will further Proofpoint’s position in the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) market.
“As attackers grow more sophisticated and people remain the primary target, organizations need security that protects them wherever they work– across email, cloud applications, and every digital channel,” said Sumit Dhawan, CEO of Proofpoint. “With the addition of Hornetsecurity, we’re excited to extend our industry-leading, human-centric security platform to better serve the unique needs of MSPs and SMBs. We look forward to deepening our investment in the European markets as part of our global growth strategy.”
The acquisition of Nuclei will boost Proofpoint’s DCG offering with capabilities to capture, retain, and analyze communications across workspace collaboration platforms, including Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, Webex, WhatsApp, and RingCentral Voice.
Furthermore, the acquisition will enable Proofpoint to continue supporting seamless integration with a broad range of archive and data governance platforms, ensuring that connectors continue to deliver reliable, compliant interoperability across diverse customer environments.
“This acquisition enables us to accelerate our mission to deliver the most advanced and comprehensive AI-powered digital communications compliance platform in the market today, and we are excited to welcome Nuclei’s talented team to Proofpoint,” said Harry Labana, senior vice president and general manager, DCG Business Unit at Proofpoint. “By combining Proofpoint’s leading human-centric security platform with Nuclei’s pioneering technology, we can provide our customers with enhanced regulatory compliance while unlocking valuable insights from conversational data, which will be a game changer, particularly for highly regulated industries.”
Zscaler makes Red Canary acquisition
Cloud security vendor Zscaler has recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire Red Canary, an organization specializing in managed detection and response (MDR).
Through this agreement, the combination will enable the delivery of a unified, agile Security Operations Center (SOC) that integrates AI-driven workflows with human expertise.
“With our innovative AI-powered risk management services like Risk360 and the acquired data fabric technology from Avalor, we are disrupting legacy security operations just like we did with our Zero Trust Exchange platform,” said Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder of Zscaler. “The proposed acquisition of Red Canary is a natural expansion of our capabilities into managed detection and response and threat intelligence to accelerate our vision of AI-powered SOC of the future. By integrating Red Canary with Zscaler, we will deliver to our customers the power of a fully integrated Zero Trust platform and AI-powered security operations.”
Red Canary has assisted its customers in investigating threats up to 10 times faster with 99.6% accuracy, while streamlining workflows through automated remediation. By adding Zscaler’s massive amounts of high-quality data to the equation and global intelligence from its ThreatLabz Research team, it will “redefine how businesses detect, respond to, and mitigate modern cyber threats.”
Check Point acquires Veriti Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity solutions leader, Check Point, is acquiring Veriti Cybersecurity, the first fully automated, multi-vendor preemptive threat exposure and mitigation platform.
“The acquisition of Veriti marks a significant step toward realizing our hybrid mesh security vision,” said Nadav Zafrir, CEO at Check Point Software Technologies. “It strengthens the Infinity Platform’s open-garden approach, enabling seamless, multi-vendor remediation across the entire security stack. With Veriti, we’re advancing preemptive, prevention-first security– an imperative in today’s AI-driven threat landscape.”
Through this acquisition, Veriti’s capabilities will integrate into the Check Point Infinity Platform as part of the Threat Exposure and Risk Management offering.
“Security teams today suffer from a lack of action: exposures aren’t just detected, they’re compounding, hiding in the gaps between tools, teams, and timelines,” said Adi Ikan, CEO and co-founder of Veriti. “We founded Veriti to help organizations not just see risk, but remediate it safely, at scale, and most importantly– without disruption. By joining Check Point, we’re accelerating that mission. Together, we’ll help organizations reduce their exposure faster through the security tools they already trust.”
Salesforce to acquire Informatica for $8B
AI CRM, Salesforce, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Informatica, a provider of enterprise AI-powered cloud data management for a substantial $8 billion in equity value.
Through the acquisition, Salesforce’s trusted data foundation will receive a boost. Further, Informatica’s data catalog, data integration, governance, quality and privacy, metadata management, and Master Data Management (MDM) services will combine with Salesforce’s platform to establish a unified architecture for agentic AI to enable AI agents to operate safely, responsibly, and at scale across the modern enterprise.
“Together, Salesforce and Informatica will create the most complete, agent-ready data platform in the industry,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce. “By uniting the power of Data Cloud, MuleSoft, and Tableau with Informatica’s industry-leading, advanced data management capabilities, we will enable autonomous agents to deliver smarter, safer, and more scalable outcomes for every company, and significantly strengthen our position in the $150 billion-plus enterprise data market.”
Netrio acquires Agio
Netrio, an end-to-end solution portfolio, has acquired Agio, a New York City-based managed IT and cybersecurity provider for the financial services sector.
Through this acquisition, Netrio’s expertise and resources in cybersecurity and the financial services industry will receive an expansion. Netrio will also be able to leverage AgioNow– Agio’s GenAI-powered IT delivery platform– to enhance Netrio’s national customer support capabilities and end user experience.
“The addition of Agio represents an important next step in our goal to transform how small- and mid-market enterprises leverage technology and enable their businesses,” said Mark Clayman, CEO of Netrio. “Agio’s deep expertise in financial services and advanced cybersecurity capabilities complement our existing services. Together, we’ll deliver comprehensive solutions that drive innovation, efficiency, and growth for our customers, while reducing cost and risk.”
“From the start, our focus has been twofold … provide unparalleled protection to our customers as a managed IT and cybersecurity provider and develop a market-leading delivery platform leveraging AI to offer a unique end-user experience,” said Bart McDonough, CEO and founder of Agio. “Joining Netrio will allow us to continue that vision on an even larger scale.”
Mergers and acquisitions are a key facet of the channel to enable organizations to assist their customers. Take a look at some of the M&A moves from the previous month of April to stay up to date on the latest news.