F5 Enhances Cloud Security Portfolio by Acquiring Threat Stack

Cloud security and workload protection pioneer F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) has acquired privately-held cloud security provider Threat Stack for $68 million. The combination of Threat Stack’s cloud security capabilities with F5’s application and API protection solutions would improve visibility across application infrastructure and workloads, making it easier for users to adopt uniform security in any cloud.

Security and compliance are top priorities for Threat Stack, which provides proactive risk identification and real-time threat detection for infrastructure and applications in the cloud. Cloud management consoles, hosts, containers, orchestration, managed containers, and serverless layers are all protected by the Threat Stack Cloud Security Platform.

“Applications are the backbone of today’s modern businesses, and protecting them is mission critical for our customers,” said Haiyan Song, Executive Vice President of Security at F5. “Threat Stack brings technology and talent that will strengthen F5’s security capabilities and further our adaptive applications vision with broader cloud observability and actionable security insights for customers.”

F5 will acquire all issued and outstanding shares of Threat Stack, a private company headquartered in Boston, for $68 million in purchase consideration, to be financed with balance sheet cash.

Adaptive Applications

In order to help clients secure and deliver outstanding digital experiences, F5’s objective is to power adaptable applications. An important characteristic of adaptive applications is their ability to identify and respond to threats in real time. In conjunction with the breadth of F5 application insights and controls, Threat Stack proactive risk identification and real-time threat detection would speed up clients’ access to these new capabilities.

The deal is projected to have no effect on F5’s financial results, contributing around $15 million in revenue in fiscal year 2022 with no modification to F5’s previously announced operating margin objectives in fiscal year 2022.

According to F5, the acquisition is subject to usual closing conditions and should be completed by the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, which ends on December 31, 2021.

Foros served as F5’s financial counsel during the acquisition. F5’s legal counsel was Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Boston Meridian Partners acted as strategic advisor and Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP provided legal counsel to Threat Stack.

Threat Stack