(Updated on 10/29/2020)
On November 3, 2019, Proofpoint (NASDAQ: PFPT), the leader in people-centric cybersecurity, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ObserveIT. This obviously represents a major development in the ObserveIT story, and I am thrilled to be hitching our wagon to such a forward-looking security leader.
We first met the Proofpoint team as we were looking at strategic options to organically grow our business while continuing our mission of being the category-defining Insider Threat Management brand. Proofpoint’s team urged us to think more broadly about the cybersecurity industry and to consider how ObserveIT could contribute to a comprehensive solution for protecting organizations’ most valuable assets: their intellectual property and their people. Proofpoint’s people-centric strategy makes so much sense and represents an opportunity for the ObserveIT platform to provide strategic value across a broader set of security solutions.
I am highly confident this union is going to be a great thing for our employees, partners, and customers. Our journey to this point has been an exciting ride for me personally, and I wanted to share some thoughts on why this decision made so much sense:
Why Proofpoint Chose ObserveIT
Ryan Kalember, executive vice president of Cybersecurity Strategy for Proofpoint, discusses in his blog the potential to extend their DLP capabilities by combing endpoint data from ObserveIT agents with their solutions for email, CASB, and data-at-rest monitoring to form an enhanced enterprise DLP offering. He looks forward to delivering, “the first truly innovative enterprise DLP offering in years.”
At ObserveIT, we have always seen our solution as a way to solve some of the many limitations of traditional DLP solutions. By joining with Proofpoint, we have the capabilities to completely disrupt the DLP space with a solution for comprehensive detection and prevention of sensitive data exfiltration.
Why ObserveIT Chose Proofpoint
There are many options for growing a successful technology company. We have enjoyed consistent growth, supportive investors, and strong support from our customers (BTW, we just hosted over 30 of our customer advisory board members in Boston last week). We could have continued to grow organically. We could have raised additional growth capital. We could have chosen other strategic partnerships. Joining forces with Proofpoint was the standout option for 3 key reasons:
- Proofpoint believes in ObserveIT’s Insider Threat vision. Insider Threat Management is an emerging cybersecurity category with the potential to develop into a multi-billion dollar market segment. ObserveiT has been proactively shaping the category for years and has earned a reputation as a visionary solution provider for Insider Threat solutions. We will continue to innovate our platform and leverage our new reach and support to accelerate growth as the Insider Threat Management leader.
- They pitched genuine technology synergy. This is not simply a technology rollup where we will leverage the reach of a larger sales organization to grow faster (which we will). There is a real opportunity to cross-pollinate data and analytic capabilities to create a true 1+1 = 3 scenario.
- Culturally, this is a fit. Proofpoint is passionate about their customers, about their employees, and about their investors. I look forward personally to joining the Proofpoint team, and I am highly confident in our collective ability to make this a seamless transition and to very quickly deliver the benefits of this partnership to all.
Great things are on the horizon!
For more information on today’s news please see the official press release.
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