Check Point buys Perimeter 81 for $490M to enhance its security tools for hybrid and remote workers

There is yet more M&A coming out of the security industry. In the latest development, Check Point, the enterprise cybersecurity company, has picked up Perimeter 81 to beef up its tools for remote and hybrid workers. Check Point will pay around $490 million for thon a “cash free, debt free” basis for the Israeli startup, it said in a statement today.

The acquisition is coming amid a major funding crunch for startups, particularly those looking to raise larger growth rounds. Perimeter 81’s exit is coming at a big discount to its last valuation: it raised $100 million in June 2022 at a $1 billion valuation, according to PitchBook data. Its investors had included Insight Partners, Maverick Ventures Israel and Francisco Partners, among others.

Check Point, which has its roots in Israel too but is now headquartered in the U.S., in San Carlos, is publicly traded and currently has a market cap of over $15 billion.

Perimeter 81 has some 3,000 customers globally. This deal both will help Check Point take out a direct competitor but also bring in more tools to grow its offerings, and bring in more customers.

Check Point has made its name as a specialist in the various aspects of enterprise cybersecurity, with product lines across the many ways that a company might engage with cloud services, network security powered by AI and predictive techniques, and proactive threat detection. It also has a product line focused on remote and hybrid workers, and it appears that Perimiter 81’s technology will be used to bolster that business. Its focus is on “security service edge” services, secure access for workers using company sites, cloud services, data centers, and the internet at large.

Companies like Zoom — ironically, given how much of its business is in the remote worker market — have made a point of asking more of their employees to spend more time in the office on a regular basis, and while we have significantly less people working at home now than during the Covid-19 pandemic years, there is still a substantial number of those opting to stay at home at least part of the time. It’s estimated that 12.7% of full-time workers in the U.S. are working from home. The number of hybrid workers — those working partly in the office and partly at home — stands at 28.2%. That represents a significant market opportunity for companies building services to address that population and that now-standard aspect of work life.

Check Point said it will be integrating Perimeter 81 into its Infinity architecture, part of its strategy to build more unified security services covering network, cloud and remote users and usage.

Importantly, this deal is also in line with a bigger evolution we’ve been tracking where larger enterprise platforms, in security and other product areas, have been consolidating point-solution functionality to present all-in-one, “one-stop-shop” offerings to their customers. That not only presents more revenue opportunities for Check Point, but for customers potentially helps them simplify their IT contracts. (That was, for example, some of the overriding logic around another Israeli cybersecurity startup acquisition earlier this week, when Rubrik announced that it was picking up Laminar, for between $100 and $200 million.)

“With the advent of hybrid work and the rise of cloud transformation, the demand for security services that expand beyond the network perimeter is increasing,” says Gil Shwed, CEO at Check Point Software Technologies, in a statement. “By leveraging Perimeter 81’s capabilities and integrating them into the Check Point Infinity platform we continue with our vision to deliver the best security through comprehensive, collaborative and consolidated solutions.”

“This strategic move marks an exciting period for our company, partners, and customers. By joining Check Point, a global leader in cyber security for over 30 years, we aim to deliver the premier SASE platform in the market,” added Amit Bareket, CEO at Perimeter 81. “Our interconnection represents a significant step towards a comprehensive and scalable security for the modern era. We look forward to the positive impact we will jointly create.”

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.