After its acquisition of SecureData earlier this year, Orange has announced another agreement it has signed to acquire SecureLink, a transaction that will advance Orange’s position in the EU’s cybersecurity industry, according to a May 7 press release.
The deal will afford Orange a position of leadership in Europe’s cybersecurity scene as SecureLink already has on-the-ground presence in eight European countries – including Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Denmark and Norway – which represents 75% of the market.
Subject to customary closing conditions, the deal, which is estimated at €515m enterprise value, is expected to close by the end of the second or third quarter of 2019. According to the agreement, SecureLink’s leadership team will join Orange’s global leadership team and aid in developing a model for integrating the combined organizations.
“I am looking forward to building the integrated organisation with Michel [van den Berghe, CEO of Orange Cyberdefense], Thomas Fetten and all the teams,” said Hugues Foulon, executive director of cybersecurity at Orange.
“Cybersecurity is a growing priority for companies of all sizes, and we believe the two most important success factors are scale and proximity. Scale because today's threats are global, complex, and require matching protection capabilities. Proximity because in the global IT world, you want a trusted local partner to secure your most strategic assets. With the acquisition of SecureData and SecureLink, Orange has the highest scale to anticipate and fend off attacks, as well as local defense teams in all the main European markets, positioning the combined organisation as the go-to defense specialist.”
Fetten noted that the two companies compliment each other quite well and share a common vision for the future of the cybersecurity industry. “We have been very impressed by the ambition and successful development of Orange Cyberdefense over the past few years and are very excited to build a pan-European leader of cybersecurity together. The combined organization will be in a phenomenal position to address the needs of our customers, partners and employees.”