Thales acquires US-based cybersecurity firm Imperva for $3.6b

By Gloria Methri

French multinational Thales has signed an agreement with Thoma Bravo for the 100% acquisition of US-based cybersecurity firm Imperva for an enterprise value of $3.6 billion.

With this acquisition, Thales aims to take cybersecurity business to the next level. Imperva will enable growth in data security and Thales’ entry into the application security market.

Patrice Caine, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Thales, said, “The acquisition of Imperva marks a major milestone in our cybersecurity strategy. With this acquisition, we are seizing a unique opportunity to accelerate our cybersecurity capabilities and provide a comprehensive portfolio of products and services. We look forward to welcoming Imperva to Thales to further enhance our cybersecurity solutions, and help customers address their most important digital security challenges.”

Pam Murphy, Chief Executive Officer, Imperva, added, “We admire Thales’ vision and culture, and believe that, together, we can deliver greater product innovation and efficiency through disruptive solutions, while helping to simplify the greatest security challenges facing organizations today: protecting digital identities, applications, APIs, and data in any environment, and any industry.”

Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Imperva has a global footprint in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe-Middle East and Africa, and monitors threats across 180 countries.

With this acquisition, Thales will add circa $500 million of revenue and significantly expand its data and application security offering. The combination of their operations will create a world-class global cybersecurity portfolio structured around 3 product areas: Identity, Data Security, and Application Security.

The companies will also benefit from their strong complementarity and cultural fit in terms of clients and addressable markets. The combination is expected to yield significant commercial opportunities within the existing client base as well as revenue synergies in the years ahead.

Thales estimates that the combination will generate $110 million of pre-tax run-rate synergies, including $50 million of cost synergies and $60 million linked to revenue synergies.