US enterprise software company ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) announced yesterday that it is acquiring cybersecurity company Armis for $7.75 billion in cash - the fourth biggest-ever tech acquisition of an Israeli company. Over the past year alone there has been two of the three bigger acquisitions - Google’s $32 billion acquisition of Wiz and Palo Alto Networks $25 billion acquisition of CyberArk (Nasdaq: CYBR).
For Aramis, which until recently openly talks about a possible Wall Street IPO in the coming years, this is a sharp change of course. For ServiceNow, this is one of the most significant deals it has made to date and a major gamble in the field of cybersecurity.
ServiceNow is one of the world’s largest enterprise software companies. The US company, founded in 2003 and listed in 2012, has built its position as a core platform for managing processes in large organizations, first in IT and later in the areas of operations, human resources, automation and risk management. Today, it is traded on Nasdaq at a market cap of more than $160 billion, and serves thousands of customers, including most of the companies in the Fortune 500 index.
In recent years, the company has expanded its operations through a long series of targeted acquisitions, including several Israeli companies, as part of a strategy that seeks to deepen its grip at the heart of organizational activity. But in this sense, the acquisition of Armis is exceptional both in its size and in the scope of responsibility it transfers to an Israeli startup within an enterprise that already serves thousands of global organizations.
Met again and again at the same clients
According to Armis and ServiceNow, the relationship between the two companies goes back several years. For a long period, the two companies simply met again and again at the same clients: large organizations, critical infrastructures, government bodies and global companies. "We met first at the clients," ServiceNow EVP and general manager Pablo Stern tells Globes. "We saw organizations using both Armis and ServiceNow. It started with point-based integrations, mainly in the worlds of OT, but over time we realized that the need was broader."
On Armis' side, the connection was also born in the field. "Customers told us very clearly - the connection works, but it is not deep enough," says Armis cofounder and CEO Yevgeny Dibrov. "They wanted not only to see a risk, but to know who in the organization should handle it, how and in what order of priorities." But at this stage, neither party was talking about an acquisition. For ServiceNow, examining collaborations and acquisitions is always part of an ongoing process.
"We're constantly looking at where our customers are and where there are gaps in the platform," says Stern. "Cybersecurity, and especially critical infrastructure exposure management, has become an issue that comes directly to the management and board of directors' desks in recent years." At Armis, however, the path seems clearer. The company has openly talked about a possible IPO in the coming years and has invested accordingly.
"The IPO was a real goal," says Dibrov. "We invested in growth, we built a financial plan, and we were completely on that path." But for him, it wasn't a single path. "Ultimately, as a CEO, you have to constantly look at the options around you," he says. "Not to fall in love with one scenario, but to ask what really allows you to build a bigger business."
Then, the conversations with ServiceNow presented such an alternative. Not as a "quick exit," but as an opportunity to change pace. "We set ourselves very clear goals," Dibrov explains. "To reach $1 billion in annual revenue within a few years. When you realize that with a platform like ServiceNow, which has a presence in almost every large global organization, you can get there faster, you have to stop and think."
On the ServiceNow side, the decision is not described as a sudden move either. "There was no single moment where we said: Now it’s an acquisition," says Stern. "We’ve known for several years that there was a fit here. In recent months, the conversations have just accelerated."
Make sure that what has worked so far also works on a big scale
Yet a merger between a fast-growing Israeli startup and a large US corporation is not a simple process. Neither side tries to present it as such. "There is a lot of work to be done, and it will take time," says Stern. "There is a connection between products, between teams, between ways of working."
Dibrov describes it in a similar way. "There is no concern here, but there is complexity. You have to connect systems, align lines, and make sure that the things that have worked so far continue to work on a bigger scale. Both sides add that it is not a question of whether, but of execution.
The tone in which the two talk about the merger is almost restrained. There is no euphoria of a "dream exit," but neither is there excessive caution. Armis is not supposed to be absorbed into ServiceNow, but to become a central part of its security operations. "The goal is to continue growth, not stop it," says Stern.
For Dibrov, the sale is not presented as the end of a chapter. "The IPO was a dream," he says, "but it's not a goal in itself. The goal is to build a significant business, with a real impact on the way organizations manage cybersecurity."
A process that will be built gradually
Now, both companies are looking ahead. ServiceNow stresses that the short-term aim is to maintain the pace of Armis' activities and not change the way it works. "Our goal is to continue with existing customers and the momentum that has been built," says Stern. Dibrov also talks about what should happen after the deal. "There's a lot of work here," he says. "Connecting systems, teams, and products. It will take time, but the direction is clear."
According to him, the goal is to make the connection between the two companies the basis of cybersecurity activities in large organizations: "To be the foundation layer of the customers' cybersecurity program, not a point solution."
Stern summarizes expectations with similar caution. "We don't see this as a one-time move," he says. "It's a process that needs to be built gradually,and proven through the value it brings to customers." As of today, for both parties, the deal does mark a change in direction, but the main test is still ahead of them. Not in the value of the deal, but in the ability to translate their connection into daily work that will meet the expectations created around it.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 24, 2025.
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