BlackBerry announces acquisition of Cylance, a cyber security and AI firm

BlackBerry has announced today that it has completed the acquisition of the California-based cybersecurity and artificial intelligence company named Cylance. The acquisition is aimed at helping BlackBerry bolster the development of BlackBerry Spark, the company's secure communications platform for the Internet of Thing devices.

You can read the entire press release below.

BlackBerry Completes Acquisition of Cylance

Company is now a billion-dollar cybersecurity firm with the technology portfolio  enterprises need to intelligently connect, protect and help build secure endpoints

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) today completed its previously-announced acquisition of Cylance, a privately-held artificial intelligence and cybersecurity company based in Irvine, California.

“Today BlackBerry took a giant step forward toward our goal of being the world’s largest and most trusted AI-cybersecurity company,” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO, BlackBerry. “Securing endpoints and the data that flows between them is absolutely critical in today’s hyperconnected world. By adding Cylance’s technology to our arsenal of cybersecurity solutions we will help enterprises intelligently connect, protect and build secure endpoints that users can trust.”

Cylance’s machine learning and artificial intelligence technology is a strategic addition to BlackBerry’s end-to-end secure communications portfolio. Notably, its embeddable AI technology will accelerate the development of BlackBerry Spark, the secure communications platform for the Internet of Things (IoT).

As the President of BlackBerry Cylance, Stuart McClure will continue to apply his visionary math-based approach to threat detection, prevention, and response, as well as lead the business’ large team of highly-skilled engineers and data scientists that deliver trusted products and services for more than 4,000 companies around the world.

Customer and Analyst Reaction to the News

• “BlackBerry for the enterprise has proven over and over that it works; Cylance for the enterprise has proven over and over that it works. It’s been clear for a while now that mobile devices are the evolving attack vector that enterprises are not ready to defend, so a combination of mobile experts and AI security experts could be just what we’ve been looking for. Here’s to BlackBerry and Cylance for the win!” – Daniel Shuler, chief information security officer of Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
• “Given the increasing threat landscape and our exploding reliance on connected IoT devices the potential for a digital catastrophe due to an intentional or accidental breach has never been higher and growing at an alarming rate. BlackBerry has been the leading independent vendor focused on securing these devices and their now approved acquisition of Cylance makes this a critical game-changing moment for the company and the IoT industry. In today’s hostile world, security isn’t an option, it is a requirement!” – Rob Enderle, Enderle Group
• “In this deal BlackBerry obtains advanced security technology that it can deploy within its existing platforms while also providing a complementary fit in terms of market vision and customer focus.” – Brian Partridge, Research Vice President at 451 Research.

Companies interested in learning more about BlackBerry Cylance’s AI-driven endpoint protection, detection and response capabilities are encouraged to visit its booth (North Hall, #6145) at RSA Conference 2019 from March 4 – 8 in San Francisco.