Online payments giant PayPal is making another acquisition in Israel. Sources inform "Globes" that PayPal has bought Beersheva-based cyber security company CyActive for $60 million. The deal has been signed and is expected to close shortly.
CyActive was founded in 2003 by its CEO Liran Tancman and CTO Shlomi Boutnaru. The company has raised $2 million from German giant Siemens, Israeli venture capital firm JVP, and an additional foreign investor.
CyActive is part of JVP's cyber incubator in Beersheva, set up eighteen months ago as part of the Beersheva Advanced Technologies Park. This is the first exit for the young incubator, which is run by JVP partners Yoav Tzruya and Dr. Nimrod Kozlovski. For JVP, this is a further success in cyber, after the flotation in the US six months ago of CyberArk, in which JVP was the main shareholder (45% before the flotation). CyberArk currently has a market cap of $1.8 billion.
CyActive has developed an algorithm inspired by biology, which is Tancman's field. Boutnaru formerly managed the cyber center of excellence at Matrix IT Ltd. (TASE:MTRX). CyActive describes itself as a predictive cyber security company, capable of foreseeing and forestalling potential cyber threats to a customer.
"Cyber security has become one of the greatest challenges of the century. A concern shared by both governments and corporations, cyber attacks account for hundreds of billions in stolen funds and IP, as well as damage to mission-critical systems. Meanwhile, the number and severity of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) grows at an alarming rate. The current cyber security paradigm is a reactive cycle: if and when a threat is exposed, it is analyzed and a counter-solution is designed. Response times vary from weeks to years. Even if a solution is made available, attackers can easily modify the original code, evade the updated security measures, and once again a new threat is born," the company's website states.
This is PayPal's second acquisition in Israel, after it bought FraudSciences, whose field is monitoring financial fraud, in 2008 for $169 million.
PayPal said in response to the report that it does not comment on speculation and rumors. No response was obtainable from JVP or CyActive.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 5, 2015
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