The channel has seen its fair share of mergers and acquisitions in September, addressing technology needs in the AI era and enhancing cybersecurity skills development.
Channel Insider keeps a tab on the major M&A news impacting the channel ecosystem and works to bring it to you every month. Read more about the latest news below.
Check Point acquires Lakera for end-to-end AI security
Check Point, a cybersecurity solutions provider, has announced the acquisition of Lakera, an AI-native security platform for agentic AI applications.
The acquisition will enable Check Point to deliver a complete end-to-end AI security stack designed to protect enterprises as they accelerate their AI journey.
“AI is transforming every business process, but it also introduces new attack surfaces,” said Nadav Zafrir, CEO at Check Point Software Technologies. “We chose Lakera because it brings AI-native security, superior precision, and speed at scale. Together, we are setting the benchmark for how enterprises adopt and trust AI.”
Check Point secures the AI transformation of organizations through GenAI Protect, SaaS, and API security, advanced data loss prevention, and machine learning-powered defenses for applications, cloud, and endpoints. The acquisition of Lakera allows Check Point to extend these capabilities to deliver “one of the industry’s first end-to-end security stack.”
“Lakera was purpose-built for the AI era, with real-time runtime security and research at its core,” said David Haber, Co-founder and CEO at Lakera. “Joining Check Point allows us to accelerate and scale our mission globally. Together, we will protect LLMs, generative AI, and agents with the speed, accuracy, and guardrails enterprises need to embrace AI with confidence.”
Blue Mantis acquires Canadian ServiceNow provider Coreio
Blue Mantis, a systems integrator and cloud services company, recently acquired Coreio. This Canada-based services provider delivers full-service IT solutions, including ServiceNow consulting and implementation, IT asset lifecycle management, cybersecurity, and service desk operations.
“Coreio’s strong reputation and proven team in Canada give us immediate market credibility and ensure a seamless experience for their existing customers, who will now have access to Blue Mantis’ broader portfolio, including advanced cybersecurity and AI enablement,” said Joshua Dinneen, Blue Mantis CEO.
As part of the acquisition, Rob Muroff, CEO of Coreio, will now serve as Blue Mantis’ general manager of Canadian operations.
“Joining forces with Blue Mantis is a natural evolution for Coreio,” said Muroff. “We share a common vision of delivering transformative IT solutions that drive real business outcomes. Our combined capabilities will empower clients to modernize faster, operate more securely, and unlock the full potential of their ServiceNow investments.”
Hack The Box acquires LetsDefend
Hack The Box (HTB), a gamified cybersecurity skills development organization, made the acquisition of LetsDefend, a blue team upskilling platform.
The acquisition is set to allow HTB to deliver a unified approach to cyber workforce development for enterprises, MSSPs, and other stakeholders via hands-on labs, real-world simulations, and cross-role training.
The companies unite into a single ecosystem to deliver a full-spectrum cyber defense upskilling platform that benefits both red and blue teams.
“Today’s cyber threats demand that security professionals upskill in a holistic, predictive way,” said Haris Pylarinos, founder and CEO at HTB. “Together with LetsDefend, we will provide a one-stop platform where aspiring penetration testers and SOC analysts can learn side by side, effectively gamifying the entire cyber kill chain. This collaboration delivers to our community and organizations an unparalleled environment to prepare for and overcome real-world cyber warfare.”
CrowdStrike acquires Pangea for AI security
Cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike has reached an agreement to acquire Pangea, a startup focused on providing guardrails for GenAI-powered applications.
“AI is rewriting the enterprise attack surface at breakneck speed,” said CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz. “Each prompt becomes an entry point for the adversary. With Pangea, CrowdStrike will secure the entire AI lifecycle, detecting risks, enforcing safeguards, and ensuring compliance, so our customers can confidently build, deploy, and scale AI without risk.”
With Pangea on the CrowdStrike Falcon platform, CrowdStrike will be able to roll out AI Detection and Response (AIDR). It’s like taking the same approach that made EDR the standard for endpoint security and apply it to AI, which covers everything from development to day-to-day use.
“Pangea was founded to make AI adoption safe and secure, giving enterprises the visibility and guardrails to embrace AI with confidence,” said Oliver Friederichs, Pangea’s founder and CEO. “By joining CrowdStrike, we will be able to deliver this vision on a global scale, unifying AI security with the Falcon platform and creating the industry’s first complete AI Detection and Response platform.”
EchoStor acquires CyberNorth
IT solutions and services provider EchoStor is acquiring CyberNorth, an enterprise and public sector IT solutions provider specializing in data protection, infrastructure, and cloud services.
“This acquisition marks a significant milestone in EchoStor’s M&A growth strategy and reinforces our position as the premier solution provider in the Northeast,” said Mike Johnson, CEO of EchoStor Technologies. “CyberNorth’s exceptional team and their proven ‘secure and simplify’ approach will strengthen our ability to deliver end-to-end, customized solutions that better protect and serve our enterprise clients.”
CyberNorth will boost EchoStor’s capabilities, broaden the company’s service offerings, and strengthen its market position across Northern New England and Upstate New York via this acquisition.
CyberNorth’s specialized data protection expertise will combine with EchoStor’s technology portfolio, along with their recent investments in security, AI, and data services. EchoStor’s Unified Technology portfolio will see an expanded range of services, focusing on Next-Gen Datacenter, Security, Networking, Modern Workplace, Digital Workflows, and AI & Data services.
SentinelOne makes Observo AI acquisition
SentinelOne, an AI-native security provider, is acquiring Observo AI, a data streaming platform for managing AI-native telemetry pipelines.
Through the acquisition, Observo AI will complement SentinelOne’s AI SIEM and data offerings, enabling SentinelOne to deliver open, intelligent, and autonomous security operations by reimagining how SOC teams collect, enrich, and act on data across their security ecosystem.
“Security is, at its heart, a data problem, and legacy, rules-based data pipeline platforms simply weren’t built for today’s ever-growing attack surface and data-rich security operations,” said Tomer Weingarten, CEO and co-founder of SentinelOne. “Observo AI is miles ahead of its rivals and will uniquely benefit customers with an AI-native data architecture– one that is open by design, intelligent by default, and built for the scale and speed needed for autonomous security operations. As a result, we can deliver significant new customer and partner value– and customer and partner choice– by allowing for fast and seamless data routing into our AI SIEM, or any other destination.”
Further, the Observo AI acquisition will strengthen SentinelOne’s Singularity Platform with an intelligent, policy-driven data pipeline optimized for real-time enrichment, filtering, and routing, before data reaches storage or analytics layers.
Cato Networks acquires Aim Security in platform & AI move
Cato Networks, a provider of SASE technologies, is acquiring Aim Security, an AI security solutions provider, marking Cato’s first-ever acquisition.
This acquisition will expand the Cato SASE Cloud Platform to enable secure enterprise adoption of AI agents, along with public and private AI applications.
This platform extension will result from Aim helping to unlock AI security capabilities that address the complexity and unstructured nature of AI interactions. Additionally, the acquisition will help to address the evolving AI attack surface, detect and stop threats, risky or anomalous access, and data breaches.
“AI transformation will eclipse digital transformation as the main focus that will shape enterprises over the next decade,” said Schlomo Kramer, CEO and co-founder of Cato Networks. “With the acquisition of Aim Security, we’re turbo-charging our SASE platform with advanced AI security capabilities to secure our customers’ journey into the new and exciting AI era.”
Varonis acquires SlashNext
Varonis, a data security and analytics company, is making a $150 million move to acquire SlashNext to add email and collaboration security to its business.
The move brings predictive AI-based email security to the Varonis platform to help fight phishing, BEC scams, and social engineering.
“The acquisition of SlashNext is a natural evolution of our platform and significantly expands our total addressable market,” said Yaki Faitelson, CEO and co-founder, Varonis. “By connecting the dots between email, identity, and data we will dramatically increase the value of our MDDR service and help customers stop threats in their inbox, where many data breaches begin.”
F5 makes acquisition of CalypsoAI
Provider of application and API security, F5, announced its intent to acquire CalypsoAI, a platform that brings real-time threat defense, red teaming at scale, and data security to enterprises deploying generative and agentic AI.
Through this acquisition, CalypsoAI will integrate into the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP) to create a solution to secure AI.
“AI is redefining enterprise architecture– and the attack surface companies must defend,” said François Locoh-Donou, President and CEO of F5. “Traditional firewalls and point solutions can’t keep up. The addition of CalypsoAI will give enterprises the confidence to innovate faster and better protect critical data as they rely on F5 to deliver and secure apps, APIs, and AI models across their environment.”
F5 seeks to utilize CalypsoAI’s adaptive AI security capabilities that deliver proactive and continuous AI protection regardless of model or cloud.
“Enterprises want to move fast with AI while reducing the risk of data leaks, unsafe outputs, or compliance failures,” said Donnchadh Casey, CEO of CalypsoAI. “Our customers rely on us to pressure test AI systems at scale, set inference layer guardrails that adapt as models change, and to gain visibility and auditability across their AI estate. F5 and CalypsoAI are more than the sum of their parts: high performance application delivery and AI security that enable businesses to deliver innovation faster without increasing risk.”
Cyberbit set to acquire RangeForce
Cyberbit, a cyber range platform, has made the acquisition of RangeForce in a move to unite two cyber range platforms for hyper-realistic attack simulation, SOC team assessment, and capability-building and solo upskilling experiences.
“Cyberbit and RangeForce bring together two organizations deeply passionate about cybersecurity defender readiness,” said David Etue, CEO at RangeForce. “The combined company’s capabilities, paired with our recent advances in AI, position us to deliver experiences that ensure SOC and IT teams are prepared for the sophisticated cyberattacks organizations face today.”
Together, the two platforms will create a U.S.-based organization to deliver an advanced AI-powered operational cyber readiness platform to bust and budget-conscious SOC teams.
“With RangeForce’s cycles of solo and team exercising, skills gap analysis, and foundational blue and red team content, customers will be able to build defensive capabilities with structure and confidence,” said Brian Pierce, Cyberbit CEO. “Cyberbit then takes readiness further, enabling SOC teams and advanced operators to investigate incidents with real commercial tools, in environments that mirror their daily work.”
Palo Alto Networks acquires Protect AI
Global cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks announced the acquisition of Protect AI, a securer of AI applications and models.
Together, the two organizations will join to meet demand from organizations who are leveraging AI to innovate. Protect AI’s integration and team of experts will be a cornerstone of Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma AIRS.
Further, Protect AI’s CEO Ian Swanson will step into the role of VP, Product, Prisma AIRS for Palo Alto Networks.
“The promise of AI is immense, but so are the security risks. Our customers are moving quickly to adopt AI and are asking for a partner who can secure their entire AI ecosystem at scale,” said Anand Oswal, SVP and GM of Network Security, Palo Alto Networks. “Protect AI’s capabilities are a powerful complement to our innovative Prisma AIRS platform, and scales our ability to provide both depth and breadth in AI security to deliver protection across the entire AI lifecycle.”
Presidio acquires UK-based transACT Technology Solutions
Presidio, a technology and solutions provider, recently acquired transACT Technology Solutions, a UK-based digital transformation specialist, to expand Presidio’s business in the UK and Ireland and accelerate growth.
transACT is a technology company that helps organizations of all sizes to deliver transformative business solutions through innovative technologies, such as digital workplace, cloud, and infrastructure. They’re an AWS partner that helps businesses seamlessly transition and optimize their cloud environments.
“transACT brings Presidio a seasoned team with expertise in cloud and digital transformation that increases our ability to deliver high-impact technology solutions to our clients around the world,” said Bob Cagnazzi, CEO at Presidio. “Together, we will accelerate innovation and drive strategic outcomes for our clients in the UK and beyond.”
Through the transaction, transACT’s UK-based sales team will be added to Presidio’s business, along with a local delivery model with a digital-first approach.
“transACT and Presidio have a shared vision for innovation and customer success that combined with Presidio’s scale, expanded portfolio and capabilities,” said Gavin Kilpatrick, Founder and Sales Leader, transACT. “We look forward to driving a meaningful impact together.”
August also saw significant M&A moves for the channel, including those by Accenture, Okta, and SailPoint. Read more about those acquisitions to stay up-to-date on the latest enterprise maneuvers.
