August 18, 2013

Another successful exit for an Israeli startup as IBM acquires Israeli data security company Trusteer and announces a new software lab in Israel. Though financial details of the transaction were not released, reports cite the deal in the vicinity of $630 million up to $1 billion.

IBM says it will form a cybersecurity software lab in Israel that will bring together more than 200 Trusteer and IBM researchers and developers to focus on mobile and application security, advanced threat, malware, counter-fraud, and financial crimes. This lab is an addition to IBM’s existing research and development facilities in Israel.

Trusteer, a specialist in cybersecurity primarily for financial services, has offices in Boston and Tel Aviv. Seven of the top 10 US banks and nine of the top 10 UK banks use Trusteer’s solutions to help secure customer accounts against financial fraud and cyber attacks.

“Trusteer’s expertise and superior technology in enterprise endpoint defense and advanced malware prevention will help our clients across all industries address the constantly evolving threats they are facing,” said Brendan Hannigan, General Manager, Security Systems Division, IBM. “Together with IBM’s capabilities in advanced threat detection, analysis and remediation, we will now be able to offer our clients several additional layers of defense against sophisticated attackers.”

Trusteer is IBM’s 10th company purchase in Israel. And it’s biggest so far.

“The way organizations protect data is quickly evolving,” said Mickey Boodaei, CEO, Trusteer. “As attacks become more sophisticated, traditional approaches to securing enterprise and mobile data are no longer valid. Trusteer has helped hundreds of large banks and organizations around the world defeat thousands of sophisticated attacks using innovative solutions that combine intelligence, cloud, mobile, and desktop technologies.”

Speaking to TheMarker, Boodaei said Trusteer’s acquisition could be “a significant contribution toward placing Israel on the global data security map. I believe that for this to happen, we need companies like IBM to come and set up their R&D centers here.

“These things are built over time. R&D centers help Israel’s local data security industry and startups. Even today we lack developers and people who understand data security. Part of the role of a development center like IBM’s is to train people and expand the market,” Boodaei said.