Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, seems on in the course of the closing bell on the Nasdaq Market in New York Metropolis, U.S., March 25, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
CyberArk shares soared as a lot as 18% on Tuesday after The Wall Road Journal reported that cybersecurity supplier Palo Alto Networks has held discussions to purchase the identification administration software program maker for over $20 billion.
Cloud safety is turning into an more and more important piece of the enterprise tech stack, particularly as fast developments in synthetic intelligence deliver with them an entire new set of threats, and as ransomware assaults change into extra commonplace.
Based in 2005, Palo Alto Networks has emerged in recent times as a consolidator within the cybersecurity trade and has grown into the largest participant within the area by market cap, with a valuation of over $130 billion. CEO Nikesh Arora, who was appointed to the job in 2018, has been on a spending spree, snapping up Protect AI in a deal that closed in July, and in 2023 shopping for Talon Cyber Safety, Dig Safety and Zycada Networks.
However CyberArk would characterize by far Arora’s greatest wager but. The Israeli firm, which went public in 2014, gives expertise that helps firms streamline the method of logging on to functions for workers.
CyberArk faces competitors from Microsoft, Okta and IBM‘s HashiCorp. One other rival, SailPoint, returned to the general public markets in February.
With Tuesday’s rally, CyberArk shares climbed to a file, surpassing their prior all-time excessive reached in February. The inventory is up 29% this yr, pushing the corporate’s market cap to nearly $21 billion, after leaping 52% in 2024. Palo Alto shares, in the meantime, slid 3.5% on the report and are actually up about 9% for the yr.
Representatives from Palo Alto Networks and CyberArk declined to remark.
In the course of the first quarter, CyberArk generated round $11.5 million in internet earnings on round $318 million in income, which was up 43% from a yr earlier.
It has been an energetic stretch for giant offers within the cyber market. Google stated in March that it was spending $32 billion on Wiz, its largest acquisition on file by far, and a purchase order supposed to bolster its cloud enterprise with larger AI safety expertise.
Networking big Cisco additionally made its greatest deal ever within the safety area, shopping for Splunk in 2023 for $28 billion. Splunk’s expertise helps companies monitor and analyze their knowledge to attenuate the chance of hacks and resolve technical points sooner.
— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report
