Deals in Brief

Surf Buyer Ltd, a subsidiary of Thoma Bravo, LLC, a US-based private equity firm, has announced to acquire Sophos Ltd, a UK-based cloud-enabled next-generation cybersecurity for an enterprise value of approximately $3.95bn.

Surf Buyer will pay $7.40 a share in cash representing a premium of 37.1% to its last closing price.

Tulchan Communications, JP Morgan Cazenove, Lazard and UBS AG London acted as a financial adviser to Sophos.

Finsbury and Goldman Sachs acts a financial adviser to Surf Buyer.

Kirkland & Ellis International LLP is acting as legal adviser to Thoma Bravo and Bidco.

Slaughter and May is acting as legal adviser to Sophos.

Evolv Technology Solutions Inc, a US-based company engaged in developing security of imaging technology, has secured $24.1m out of its $30m in funding round.

As part of the transaction, Bill Gates, General Catalyst Partners, Lux Capital, Data Collective, SineWave Ventures, Finback Investment Partners, and others participated in the round.

Michael Ellenbogen is the CEO of Evolv Technologies.

HackerOne Inc, a US-based hacker-powered pentest and bug bounty platform, has secured $36.4m in Series D funding led by Valor Equity Partners, an operational growth investment firm.

Additionally, Benchmark, New Enterprise Associates, Dragoneer Investment Group, and EQT Ventures also participated in the funding round.

As part of the transaction, David Obrand, Partner at Valor Equity Partners, will join HackerOne’s Board of Directors.

Proofpoint Inc, a provider of data protection solutions (cybersecurity), has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ObserveIT Ltd for a cash consideration of $225m. Both companies involved in the transaction are based in the US.

ObserveIT is a provider of endpoint solutions to help organisations identify and protect data and systems from threats of malicious and negligent behavior of vendors, contractors, privileged users and high-risk users,

Following the transaction, ObserveIT will become part of the Proofpoint information protection suite and is expected to be available in 2020.

Mike McKee is the CEO of ObserveIT.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019, and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Aviatrix Systems, Inc, a US-based provider of networking and security services for the multi-cloud enterprise, has secured $40m in Series C venture funding.

The round was led by Charles River Ventures Inc, with participation from Formation 8, Ignition Partners and Liberty Global Ventures.

The transaction brings total funding raised by to more than $76m.

Trend Micro Incorporated, a Japan-based provider of security-related software, has acquired Cloud Conformity Pty Ltd, an Australian cloud security posture management (CSPM) company, for a consideration of $70m.

Michael Watts is chief executive officer of Cloud Conformity.

Following the transaction, Cloud Conformity will join Trend Micro.

Palo Alto Networks Inc, a cybersecurity company, has acquired ZingBox Inc, a an IoT security company, for a total purchase price of $75m, to be paid in cash. Both the companies are based in the US.

Zingbox’s products will continue to be available to customers after the transaction closes.

ZingBox’s co-founders, Xu Zou, May Wang, and Jianlin Zeng, will join Palo Alto Networks.