SecureAuth to Merge with Core Security

K1 Investment Management plans to acquire SecureAuth for more than $200 million and merge it with its portfolio company Core Security, SecureAuth CEO Jeffrey Kukowski told Dark Reading.

The merger, announced today, is expected to close within a matter of days pending US government regulatory approval, says Kukowski, who will be CEO of the as-yet-unnamed combined company.

SecureAuth is the sixth company K1 Investment Management plans to merge with Core Security, which last year became an amalgamation of Courion, Core Security, SecureReset, Bay 31, and Damballa.

The merger will bring SecureAuth's laser focus on authentication to the table and round out Core Security's offerings, said Frank Dickson, IDC research director, in the announcement.

Core Security has three product lines: Core Network Insight, for advanced threat detection; Threat and Vulnerability Management, for vulnerability testing and assessment; and Identity and Access Management & IAM, a suite of governance tools for identity management and access.

"What is exciting to me is that this merger is not just complementary but it completes the view. It finishes that picture," says Chris Sullivan, CTO and CISO of Core Security.

Core Security has technology to address the network, endpoint and vulnerabilities but lacked an identity piece.

SecureAuth IdP performs single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and behavior-based authentication. 

Under the merger, the combined companies will address vulnerabilities, identities, networks and endpoints with an identity-based security automation platform, which aims to shorten the time it takes for enterprises to see, respond to and remediate attacks.

When cybercriminals attack, they don't remain just within one security silo such as a secured network, says Keith Graham, SecureAuth CTO. However, SOCs are not designed to peer into multiple silos to respond to a breach. As a result, the merger's platform is designed to bring greater visibility to threats.

Customer Expectations

The combined company will have over 1,500 customers, some of which are already customers of both SecureAuth and Core Security. Sullivan says Core and SecureAuth were already familiar with one another prior to the merger announcement. Some of Core's customers would request identity access technology and, as a result, the sales teams for both companies would jointly meet with those customers.

Little overlap exists between the two companies in products and markets, say Kukowski and Sullivan. They pointed to some duplication in password protection offerings and noted each company has a presence in the healthcare and financial services industries.

The companies will begin integration in the fourth quarter, and over the next three-to five-months a decision will be made as to the name of the merged company and its products, Kukowski says.

SecureAuth's main product, SecureAuth IdP, will be integrated with Core Network Insight, followed by Core's Threat and Vulnerability Management, and, then, Core's Identity and Access Management & IAM, Graham says.

"There is consolidation occurring in the security industry where vendors are looking to add new product categories to their portfolio in order to deliver a more complete product suite for their customers," says Joseph Blankenship, a senior analyst with Forrester Research. "This can be an advantage for the customers who are dealing with product sprawl and multiple vendor solutions."

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