Google Buys Cybersecurity Firm Siemplify For Reported $500M

‘In a time when cyberattacks are rapidly growing in both frequency and sophistication, there’s never been a better time to bring these two companies together,’ says Google Cloud Security VP/GM Sunil Potti.

Google Cloud has purchased Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) vendor Siemplify to help businesses more effectively hunt, detect and respond to threats.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based public cloud giant said it plans to integrate Siemplify’s SOAR capability with Google’s Chronicle security analytics platform to help organizations modernize and automate their security operations. The deal was first reported by Calcalist, which said Google paid $500 million to buy Siemplify. Siemplify directed press inquiries to Google, which declined to comment on the acquisition price.

“In a time when cyberattacks are rapidly growing in both frequency and sophistication, there’s never been a better time to bring these two companies together,” Sunil Potti, vice president and general manager of Google Cloud Security, wrote in a blog post. “We both share the belief that security analysts need to be able to solve more incidents with greater complexity while requiring less effort and less specialized knowledge.”

[Related: CRN Exclusive: Security Startup Siemplify Launches First Partner Program]

Siemplify allows Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts to manage their operations from end to end, respond to cyberthreats with speed and precision, and get smarter with every analyst interaction, Potti said. The technology also helps improve SOC performance by reducing caseloads, raising analyst productivity and creating better visibility across workflows, according to Potti.

Siemplify was founded in 2015, has raised $58 million of outside funding and employs 200 people in Israel, the U.S. and London, according to Calcalist. The company most recently closed a $30 million Series C round in May 2019 led by Georgian Partners.

“We’re excited to join Google Cloud and build on the success we’ve had in the market helping companies address growing security threats,” Siemplify CEO Amos Stern said in a statement. “Together with Chronicle’s rich security analytics and threat intelligence, we can truly help security professionals transform the Security Operations Center to defend against today’s threats.”

Stern in a blog post praised Google Cloud’s commitment to delivering an open ecosystem, supporting multi-cloud environments, minimizing vendor lock-in and leveraging best-of-breed solutions. The acquisition will make it possible for Siemplify to deliver more innovation while staying true to its values, according to Stern.

“The Siemplify platform is trusted by many of the world’s leading security teams, from Fortune 500 companies to world-class MSSPs,” Stern wrote in the blog post. “The challenges we set out to solve are only becoming more profound, and organizations are facing an unprecedented volume of cybersecurity threats —all as the shortage of skilled personnel to address these threats remains at an all-time high.”

The Siemplify acquisition marks the first time Google has bought an Israeli company active in the cybersecurity sector, and the cloud computing giant plans to use Siemplify to form the basis for its cybersecurity operations in Israel. Simplify co-founders Stern, Chief Technology Officer Alon Cohen and Chief Operating Officer Garry Fatakhov will all continue at the company, according to Calcalist.

“I am happy that Siemplify is joining Google,” Fatakhov wrote on LinkedIn Tuesday. “The great vision, values and culture of Google are energizing us to contribute to helping build the top-notch cybersecurity brand and to make our world more secure.”

SOAR has been a popular acquisition target in recent years, with Splunk buying Phantom for $350 million in February 2018 to help SOcs more quickly evaluate and respond to threats, and Palo Alto Networks purchasing Demisto for $560 million in March 2019 to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate large parts of customers’ security operations.

Then in December 2019, Fortinet bought CyberSponse for $26.1 million to make security operations teams more efficient and bolster incident response. And in March 2021, Sumo Logic bought DFLabs for $42.1 million to help modern SOCs more effectively automate, orchestrate and measure security operations and incident response processes and tasks.