F-Secure is set to acquire consultancy and research company MWR Infosecurity.
Calling the acquisition “a significant milestone in the execution of F-Secure’s growth strategy,” the move will see F-Secure gain a number of leading cybersecurity researchers, and also MWR’s products and services including the threat hunting platform Countercept and its suite of managed phishing protection services Phishd.
F-Secure CEO Samu Konttinen said: “I’m thrilled to welcome MWR InfoSecurity’s employees to F-Secure. With their vast experience and hundreds of experts performing cybersecurity services on four continents, we will have unparalleled visibility into real-life cyber-attacks 24/7.
“This enables us to detect indicators across an incredible breadth of attacks so we can protect our customers effectively. As most companies currently lack these capabilities, this represents a significant opportunity to accelerate F-Secure’s growth.”
MWR InfoSecurity CEO Ian Shaw, who will join F-Secure’s Leadership Team after the closing of the transaction in July, said: “We’ve always relied on research-driven innovations executed by the best people and technology. This approach has earned MWR InfoSecurity the trust of some of the largest organizations in the world. We see this approach thriving at F-Secure, and we look forward to working together so that we can break new ground in the cybersecurity industry.”
The acquisition of MWR follows a series of acquisitions in the past of services companies, which security researcher Mike Kemp from Xiphos Research highlighted on Twitter.
Security analyst Bob Tarzey told Infosecurity that as both F-Secure and MWR are Europe-based companies, this is not about extending global reach, although their market penetration is complementary to some extent.
“F-Secure will get three things: a managed security service provider capability, better enterprise reach (to date F-Secure has been more consumer/SMB focused) and some complimentary capabilities,” he said.
“Cisco’s 2015 acquisition of Portcullis was also a services play, and yes, as cybersecurity involves, all the main players need more services as well as product capabilities.”