What you need to know
- RiskIQ is a cybersecurity company.
- It may be acquired by Microsoft within the next few days for over $500 million.
- This is the latest security-minded acquisition from Microsoft in a recent string.
Update July 12, 2021 at 12:00 pm ET: Microsoft has officially announced the acquisition of RiskIQ. The original story follows.
RiskIQ, the San Francisco-based cybersecurity software maker, is soon to be acquired by Microsoft, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The deal could be announced within the next few days and, according to one of the people spoken to, will carry a price tag of over $500 million.
RiskIQ's software as a service (SaaS) model is central to its operations and the products it offers. It has products that can monitor and analyze cloud space to ensure their security, as well as other software that actively combat malware and phishing attempts.
Spokespeople for both companies declined to comment to Bloomberg about the reported deal.
This isn't the first security company Microsoft has acquired in recent memory. Not too long ago, back in the early days of June 2021, Microsoft bought ReFirm Labs to bolster its IoT security offerings.
That deal was learned about via an official announcement from the companies, so more information about the acquisition intentions was immediately available. Given that RiskIQ's acquisition is not yet official, the specifics of what Microsoft hopes to gain from the software maker are unclear, though a company that specializes in cloud services security being bought by the gigantic corporation responsible for Azure does highlight potential overlap in where the two could find common ground.
Cloud operations have been paramount to Microsoft's recent dealings, be they successful ones such as the company's strategic partnership with AT&T, or unsuccessful endeavors such as the recently terminated JEDI contract.
