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We’ve previously written about mergers making a comeback this year, but while transcontinental railroads steal the spotlight, the hottest industry for dealmaking is clearly cybersecurity.
Back in March, Alphabet acquired cloud security provider Wiz for a staggering $32 billion—its biggest acquisition ever. Today, Palo Alto Networks announced its plans to acquire Israeli firm CyberArk for $25 billion in another blockbuster deal.
Palo Alto fell 5.58%, but is up 15.29% in the last 12 months after surging 13% yesterday when the Wall Street Journal first reported talks of the acquisition. CyberArk ended the day up 0.16%.
The deets: The acquisition gives Palo Alto a path into the identity security market, which is a subset of cybersecurity software that essentially manages who in a company can access what information. CyberArk’s competitors include firms like Okta, whose multi-layer sign-in processes may drive employees on a deadline (like us) insane, but are effective security tools to prevent the data breaches and cyberattacks that are becoming more common.
“Our market entry strategy has always been to enter categories at their inflection point, and we believe that moment for Identity Security is now,” said Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora in a statement.
Cybersecurity merger mania
Arora told CNBC today that he expects the cybersecurity industry to keep consolidating over the next five years, as AI makes both cyberattacks and subsequent security countermeasures more advanced.
Dealmaking at large hit a serious slowdown over the past few years, as startups stayed away from the murky public market waters and giants opted not to make acquisitions given high interest rates and an economic landscape with question marks all over it. But that’s all changed this year, as businesses eye a more lenient regulatory environment and booming stock market.
In fact, this isn’t even Palo Alto’s first M&A rodeo in 2025. Back in April, Palo Alto announced plans to purchase Protect AI, a cyber startup focused on securing AI models.
Looks like cybersecurity giants can make deals faster than Okta lets us into our email accounts.—LB