Sophos to Acquire Invincea for up to $120 Million

IT security firm Sophos announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire Invincea, a provider of endpoint security solutions that leverage virtual containers to protect against advanced malware and other threats.

Under the terms of the agreement Sophos will pay $100 million in cash to buy the endpoint protection firm, with a possible $20 million earn-out.

Headquartered in Fairfax, Va., Invincea was founded by chief executive officer Anup Ghosh, and has raised more than $50 million in funding.

Invincea’s flagship product X uses “deep learning neural networks and behavioral monitoring” to detect previously unseen malware and stops attacks.

According to Kris Hagerman, chief executive officer at Sophos, Invincea’s technology will strengthen Sophos’ recently launched Intercept X product, which includes set of next-generation technologies such as the signature-less anti-malware, anti-exploit and anti-ransomware technology. 

“The Invincea machine learning malware detection and prevention technology will be fully integrated into the Sophos endpoint protection portfolio,” Sophos explained. “The availability of Invincea technology through the Sophos Central security management platform will further enhance the Sophos synchronized security portfolio and real-time intelligence sharing.”

“Invincea was created to address sophisticated threats from nation state actors and cyber criminals that were successfully evading traditional network and antivirus solutions,” Ghosh wrote in a blog post. “We understood that signature based defenses were nearing the end of their useful life, and alternative non-signature based solutions were needed.”

Norm Laudermilch, chief operating officer and head of product development at Invincea added, “Invincea set out to disrupt the traditional approach to antivirus, and even now no single technology is enough to fully protect customers. I share the Sophos vision for bringing together a powerful ensemble of next-gen technologies to dramatically improve the overall effectiveness of endpoint protection. Along with our world-class technical team at Invincea, I’m looking forward to joining Sophos and helping deliver on this ambitious and exciting vision.”

Sophos said it would retain Invincea’s office in Fairfax, and Ghosh and COO Norm Laudermilch will join Sophos in key leadership positions.

For Invincea customers, the Invincea endpoint security portfolio will continue to be supported and sold by Invincea and available via Invincea’s channel partners.

Invincea Labs, a division of Invincea that invents, prototypes and engineers technologies for government and industry, has been separately managed and operated since 2012, and is not part of this transaction.