Mobility technology provider Blackberry has entered negotiations to acquire Cylance, a US-based cybersecurity software producer backed by corporates Citi, Capital One and Dell, for up to $1.5bn, Business Insider has reported.
A final deal could potentially be announced as early as this week, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The company has raised $297m in funding altogether, and was reported last month to be considering an initial public offering in early 2019.
Founded in 2012, Cylance provides endpoint security software that has been installed on 14.5 million systems. It uses artificial intelligence to analyse 2.7 million data points for each file to detect and guard against both known and thus far unidentified threats.
Dell Ventures and Capital One Ventures, respective subsidiaries of computing technology producer Dell and financial services firm Capital One, took part in the company’s $42m series C round in 2015.
The 2015 round was led by DFJ Growth and also featured TenEleven Ventures, KKR, Thomvest, Draper Nexus and existing investors Blackstone, Fairhaven Capital and Khosla Ventures.
Citi Ventures, the strategic investment arm of financial services firm Citi, invested in Cylance’s $100m series D round the following year, a round co-led by Blackstone’s Opportunities Fund and Insight Venture Partners that included undisclosed existing backers.
Cylance subsequently raised $120m in a series E round led by Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities vehicle in June this year that was also backed by unnamed existing investors.
