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Just a month after announcing plans to snap up Kubernetes security start-up Octarine, VMware’s latest acquisition target is cybersecurity firm Lastline.
On Thursday (4 June), California-based cybersecurity start-up Lastline announced that it is being acquired by VMware. The news was confirmed in a blogpost written by Lastline CEO John DiLullo.
He said that by joining forces with VMware, the cybersecurity business will be able to offer additional capabilities to its customers, while bringing comprehensive security solutions for data centre, branch office and remote users to market.
Founded in 2011, Lastline has developed an AI-powered network detection and response platform to protect on-premises networks, email and public cloud workloads from cyber threats.
Investors in the start-up include Redpoint, E.ventures, Barracuda Networks, NTT Finance and Dell Technologies Capital.
“As one combined company, we will be able to offer an even broader array of integrated security solutions for both networking and security, and complement many of VMware’s established solutions for cloud, data centre, end user and workload protection,” DiLullo wrote.
“VMware’s heritage and culture is similar in many ways, and our mutual commitments to customer success and innovation will create a fertile ecosystem in which our employees will be able to thrive and our customers and partners will be able to enjoy leading solutions.”
Letting staff go
TechCrunch reported on the deal before the two companies confirmed the news. A source told the publication that VMware will lay off 40pc of the Lastline workforce as part of the acquisition.
This makes up roughly 50 employees, according to TechCrunch. However, neither VMware or Lastline responded when the publication asked for comments.
Software firm VMware published its Q1 earnings report last week, showing that revenues were up by 12pc on the same period last year, reaching $2.73bn. VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said that the revenue boost was sparked by the shift to remote work.
According to TechCrunch, VMware’s focus in recent months has been on cloud-native hybrid and multi-cloud deployments, “which makes Lastline a pretty obvious fit for its overall strategy”. Last month, VMware announced plans to acquire cloud-native Kubernetes security platform Octarine.
