The Post-Sony World: Why A Defense Contractor Bought A Cybersecurity Firm For $1.9 Billion

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.fastcompany.com/3045271/welcome-to-the-post-sony-world-why-a-defense-contractor-bought-a-cybersecurity-firm-for-19-b

By Neal Ungerleider
Fast Company
April 22, 2015

One of the worst-kept secrets in the cybersecurity world is out: Raytheon, 
one of the world’s biggest defense contractors, just spent a staggering 
$1.9 billion on a cybersecurity company called Websense.

It’s one of the biggest tech deals so far this year. So why is a military 
firm best known for building missiles plopping down money for software and 
tech talent? The answer doesn’t have to do with cyberwar, but with the 
sweet, sweet cash of corporate America.

Let's explore what this means. Because of a number of high-profile hack 
attacks over the past two years—Target, Sony Pictures, and JPMorgan Chase, 
just to name a few out of an even larger number of publicized and 
covered-up breaches—corporate America is running scared. Fear of 
liability, fear of customer loss, and fear of stumbling stock prices and 
brand reputation mean that enterprise customers feel compelled to shell 
out big, big bucks for cybersecurity products. Corporate boards are, 
perhaps understandably, nervous.

That global market, which analyst firm Gartner pegs at being worth 
approximately $76.9 billion in spending for 2015, is something Raytheon 
and its competitors want a big part of. The defense contractor has had 
enterprise-oriented cybersecurity products on the market for quite some 
time, but has only made limited market inroads. About 50% of Websense’s 
customers are overseas, which also gives Raytheon considerable pull 
outside their core market in America.

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