Israeli-German cybersecurity company XM Cyber, among the founders of which was former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, is being sold for the second time in its history, this time to US cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike. The sale is of XM Cyber’s intellectual property only, and not of the company as such.
XM Cyber’s intellectual property is now being sold for $600 million, after the company itself was sold for $700 million five years ago to German company Schwarz Group. As far as is known, Pardo no longer holds a position at the company.
The customers and revenue will remain with XM Cyber under its German business. Most of the employees will remain in Schwarz Group, but a small number will transfer to CrowdStrike.
XM Cyber is shortly due to undergo restructuring and "adjustment of the size of the workforce in line with its tasks", i.e., layoffs. The company promises however that all employees will benefit from the exit in accordance with the options they hold. Their value is estimated in the tens of millions of dollars. The employees who remain will receive retention bonuses.
The founders still at the company, Noam Erez (CEO), and Boaz Gorodisky (CTO), will remain with the German company.
Market estimates put XM Cyber’s order book at $450 million, and sources close to it estimate the company’s value at $1 billion. In other words, Schwarz Group sees the current deal as representing a valuation $300 million higher than in the deal whereby it acquired the company five years ago.
Schwarz Group is a German retailing concern. It bought XM Cyber in order to deal with cyber threats via the public, private and on-premises cloud. XM Cyber detects hidden security weaknesses in an enterprise’s critical infrastructure and enables data security teams to block them in real time.
Pardo, Erez and Gorodisky founded the company under the name XM (meaning ex-Mossad) nearly ten years ago. As mentioned, Pardo no longer has an active role at it, but he serves as a consultant.
Although it is buying intellectual property only, this is an important acquisition by CrowdStrike in Israel, which, as mentioned, will also bring to it some of XM Cyber’s employees. CrowdStrike has so far acquired six companies in Israel: Preempt Security in 2020; Bionic in 2023; Flow Security and Adaptive Shied in 2024; Seraphic Security in January 2026; and now XM Cyber’s IP. It is currently in negotiations to buy Orion Security for an estimated $500 million.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 13, 2026.
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