VMware Acquires Lastline Network Detection and Response -

VMware is acquiring Lastline, a network detection and response (NDR) cybersecurity startup, the companies have confirmed. The deal is expected to close before August 2020. Financial terms were not disclosed.

This is M&A deal number 240 that MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E have covered so far in 2020. See the complete M&A deal list here.

VMware has been active on the M&A front -- having purchased such cybersecurity and SD-WAN firms as Octarine and Nyansa earlier this year.

Lastline's NDR Technology; MSSP and Investor Relationships

Lastline develops artificial intelligence (AI)-based threat detection capabilities -- including various NDR and public cloud security solutions. The flagship Lastline Defender iNDR platform consolidates four technologies – File Analysis, Network Intrusion Detection (IDS), Cloud Workload Protection and Network Traffic Analysis (NTA).

The Lastline Defender Spring 2020 release, announced in May, "dramatically reduces false positives and automates threat investigation based on hundreds of contextual data markers about hosts and users on the network," the company said at the time.

On the partner front, Lastline in July 2019 named Jarrett Miller as VP of global channel sales. At the time, the company said its key partner priorities include distributors, resellers, system integrators, and managed security service includes (MSSPs). But fast forward to February 2020, and Miller has moved on to join HashiCorp.

Still, Lastline has some big-name MSSPs and distributors as partners -- including Herjavec Group, Optiv and Synnex, according to the acquired company's website.

Lastline's early investors include Thomvest Ventures, Redpoint, e.ventures, Barracuda Networks, NTT Finance and Dell Technologies Capital. Dell, perhaps not by coincidence owns most of VMware.

Lastline Layoffs?: VMware plans to cut roughly 40 percent of Lastline's staff -- or roughly 50 employees, according to TechCrunch. MSSP Alert has not confirmed that report.

VMware Acquires Lastline: The Strategy

In a blog about the M&A deal, Lastline CEO John Dilullo wrote:

"As one combined company, we will be able to offer an even broader array of integrated security solutions for both networking and security, and complement many of VMware’s established solutions for cloud, data center, end user, and workload protection. There are few security companies that have the breadth of network and endpoint capabilities as we expect the combined Lastline and VMware will have."

Lastline remains "100% committed to delivering high-quality products and world-class service to our customers, partners and integrators," Dilullo added.

VMware has dabbled in the IT security market for numerous years. The company went all-in last year when VMware paid $1.9 billion to acquire Carbon Black, a cloud-based endpoint protection and cybersecurity company.