Investment company Permira is acquiring the listed security specialist Mimecast for approximately 5.1 billion euros (5.8 billion dollars). The takeover should enable the security specialist to grow further.
The takeover by the private investment company means that Mimecast will disappear from the NASDAQ exchange. The end of October was already the last day that the shares of the security specialist were publicly traded. In total, Permira will pay shareholders at EUR 71 (USD 80) per share. Mimecast intends to use the acquisition amount for expansion.
With the acquisition of Mimecast, Permira realizes its second purchase of a security company in a few weeks. McAfee was recently acquired in collaboration with other investment companies. The acquisition of mimecast is still subject to a 30-day reservation. During this period, the security specialist can still discuss better deals from other parties. Permira expects to complete the acquisition in the second half of next year.
Email Security Platform
The takeover gives the private investment company a security specialist that focuses on protecting e-mail. Mimecast provides a platform that intercepts spam messages and spearphishing messages. It also discovers malicious attachments in emails, including malware that preys on zero-day vulnerabilities.
The security specialist uses AI methods to intercept the malicious email to analyze the security data from the billions of emails scanned via the platform. The analysis looks for deviations, to which the protection is adjusted.
In addition, the Mimecast platform analyzes the code in the attachments based on static file analysis to discover attached malware. The attachments open in a sandbox for closer inspection. In addition, all attached files are checked against a database of known malware forms.
Other services
In addition to email protection via the platform, Mimecast also provides other security tools. Think of Safe Phish for training employees in the field of security best practices. This allows security specialists to test how employees react when they receive a – in this case fake – spearphishing e-mail.
For backup, the security specialist also provides a solution for archiving business e-mail. This allows companies to find their business e-mail, if it is unexpectedly inaccessible due to a hack attack.