Sophos to acquire Secureworks for $859 million

Prominent cybersecurity company Sophos is acquiring another well-known firm in the industry, Secureworks, for about $859 million, the two companies announced Monday.

U.K.-based Sophos “expects to integrate solutions from both companies into a broader and stronger security portfolio benefiting small, mid- and enterprise customers,” according to the news release on the acquisition.

Secureworks, based in Atlanta, focuses on cyberthreat detection and response. Sophos said those capabilities will be used to complement its own products and services, which span from cybersecurity incident response to network, email and cloud security technology.

Secureworks is currently listed on Nasdaq stock exchange, where it was trading for about $8.38 a share on Monday morning. The all-cash acquisition will pay $8.50 per share to current shareholders and is expected to close in early 2025, the companies said. 

Tech giant Dell owns about 79 percent of Secureworks after taking it public in 2016.

Sophos is backed by investment firm Thoma Bravo, which acquired it in 2020 for an estimated $3.9 billion. 

Both firms are known for producing widely cited cybersecurity research. Sophos recently published details of a China-linked espionage campaign, and last week Secureworks reported on new developments in North Korea’s campaign to place fake IT workers at corporations.