Palo Alto Networks Reportedly Close to Buying Talon Cyber Security, Dig Security

Palo Alto Networks reportedly is on a shopping spree in Israel, with advanced negotiations to buy startups Talon Cyber Security and Dig Security.

According to TechCrunch, citing multiple sources, Palo Alto Networks is looking to buy the Israel-based startups for about $1 billion to expand its portfolio. That would include between $600 million and $700 million for Talon Cyber Security and between $300 million and $400 million for Dig Security.

Talon Cyber Security provides enterprise browser technology, while Dig Security secures data across public clouds.

We couldn’t reach Palo Alto Networks for comment on the potential acquisitions.

Talon Cyber Security Acquisition ‘Interesting Move’

Rik Turner, senior principal analyst with Omdia, which shares a parent company with Channel Futures (Informa), said the Talon Cyber Security acquisition will be an “interesting move if it comes off.”

Omdia’s Rik Turner

“Talon is a player in the emerging enterprise browser segment, which proposes browser technology, based on the Chromium, the free and open-source web browser project, mainly developed and maintained by Google,” he said. “The idea is that the Talon browser can be a complete replacement for the free browser that ships with your organization’s laptops, or else can be deployed alongside it, but still force all corporate traffic through the enterprise browser, with only personal/private traffic being allowed through the regular browser, a capability that opens the tech up for use in BYOD scenarios.”

It’s particularly interesting, Turner said, that this is the first move by a major secure access service edge (SASE) player in that particular direction of browser security, Turner said.

“Until now, a lot of the SASE vendors have added remote browser isolation (RBI) technology, which makes sense as it is delivered from a proxy, which is also how the other security capabilities of a SASE are provided,” he said. “Enterprise browser security, on the other hand, is delivered to the endpoint itself. So if Palo buys Talon, it will presumably be done to enhance the buyer’s endpoint security tech, which until now has been the Traps technology it got from its 2014 Cyvera acquisition. That tech has now made a massive impact on the market and Palo is not considered a major player in endpoint security. It remains to be seen whether the acquisition of Talon would change that. It would certainly represent quite a departure for Palo.”

Significance of Dig Security Acquisition

As for Dig Security, this would be the third acquisition of a data security posture management (DSPM) vendor by a major multi-product vendor this year, after IBM bought Polar Security and Rubrik bought Laminar, Turner said.

“DSPM is something of a hot topic at the moment, with around two dozen startups having raised venture capital funds for this in the last couple of years,” he said. “Clearly DSPM won’t remain as a standalone technology, and the acquisitions show it moving into the portfolios of players in data security (IBM’s Guardium product suite and Rubrik’s cloud backup and restore offering).”

If Dig Security goes to Palo Alto Networks, it will be a CNAPP vendor folding DSPM into its cloud security offerings, Turner said.

“That also makes sense and is a logical alternative route for DSPM (for example, as part of a broader cloud security offering) vis-à-vis the enhancement of a comprehensive data-specific set of security tools,” he said.

Palo Alto Networks ‘Most Aggressive’ Acquirer in Cybersecurity

Eric Parizo, managing principal analyst at Omdia, said overall, Palo Alto Networks is perhaps the most aggressive acquirer in all of cybersecurity, and its track record in recent years backs that up.

Omdia’s Eric Parizo

“Its overall strategy is to unyieldingly grow its total addressable market by bringing together as many discrete enterprise cybersecurity capabilities as possible, particularly in regard to cloud computing-related security, and then cross-selling and upselling to its tens of thousands of customers globally,” he said. “These rumored moves would add additional capabilities that the vendor does not yet cover, but would seemingly complement its existing portfolio.”

Canalys’ Matthew Ball

Matthew Ball, chief analyst at Canalys, which also shares a parent company with Channel Futures (Informa), said platform vendors will continue to acquire to strengthen their offerings and fill gaps in capabilities.

“Both rumored deals will strengthen its SASE platform in a highly competitive segment of the market,” he said. “It will help to further strengthen its proposition. No doubt, other vendors will follow suit. Palo Alto has a good track record of expanding through tech tuck-in acquisitions and so these potential deals continues this strategy.”