Palo Alto Networks to buy Cyvera, Israeli Startup

Palo Alto Networks has announced that it’s buying Tel Aviv-based Cyvera for $US200 million, including $US88 million in cash.

Palo Alto Networks  which raised more than $260 million in a 2012 initial public offering — agreed to spend about $88 million in cash on Israeli security startup Cyvera, using stock to construct the rest of the purchase price.

Cyvera’s software protects businesses from cyber threats by blocking unknown, zero-day attacks on computers running Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) Windows software, including ATMs and cash registers.Zero-day cyber attacks exploit a vulnerability in computer systems and networks known only to the attacker.

The growing threat of online crime has increased demand for cybersecurity products as companies are no longer relying solely on anti-virus software to protect their networks.Palo Alto will pay about $88 million in cash and $112 million in stock for Cyvera.

“The acquisition will bring us a unique, endpoint-based solution and an amazingly talented team, which will allow us to immediately target the adjacent enterprise endpoint security market, which is $4 billion today and growing to close to $5 billion in the next few years,” CEO Mark McLaughlin said in a webcast discussion of the deal Monday morning.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of its fiscal year 2014, Palo Alto said.