Sophos

Sophos Group plc is a British security software and hardware company. Sophos develops products for communication endpoint, encryption, network security, email security, mobile security and unified threat management. Sophos is primarily focused on providing security software to 100- to 5,000-seat organizations. While not a primary focus, Sophos also protects home users, through free and paid antivirus solutions (Sophos Home/Home Premium) intended to demonstrate product functionality. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Thoma Bravo in February 2020.

For other uses, see Sophos (disambiguation).

Sophos
Private
ISINGB00BYZFZ918 
IndustryComputer software
Founded1985 (1985)
Founder
  • Jan Hruska
  • Peter Lammer
HeadquartersAbingdon, England, UK
Key people
  • Peter Gyenes
  • (chairman)
  • Kris Hagerman
  • (CEO)
ProductsSecurity software
ServicesComputer security
Revenue$640.7 million (2018)[1]
US$46.9 million (2018)[1]
US$66.3 million (2018)[1]
OwnerThoma Bravo
Number of employees
3,319 (2018)[1]
Websitesophos.com

History

Sophos was founded by Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer and began producing its first antivirus and encryption products in 1985.[2] During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Sophos primarily developed and sold a range of security technologies in the UK, including encryption tools available for most users (private or business). In the late 1990s, Sophos concentrated its efforts on the development and sale of antivirus technology, and embarked on a program of international expansion.[3]

In 2003, Sophos acquired ActiveState, a North American software company that developed anti-spam software. At that time viruses were being spread primarily through email spam and this allowed Sophos to produce a combined anti-spam and antivirus solution.[4] In 2006, Peter Gyenes and Steve Munford were named chairman and CEO of Sophos, respectively. Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer remain as members of the board of directors.[5] In 2010, the majority interest of Sophos was sold to Apax.[6] In 2010, Nick Bray, formerly Group CFO at Micro Focus International, was named CFO of Sophos.[7]

In 2011, Utimaco Safeware AG (acquired by Sophos in 2008-9) were accused of supplying data monitoring and tracking software to partners that have sold to governments such as Syria: Sophos issued a statement of apology and confirmed that they had suspended their relationship with the partners in question and launched an investigation.[8][9] In 2012, Kris Hagerman, formerly CEO at Corel Corporation, was named CEO of Sophos and joined the company's board. Former CEO Steve Munford became non-executive chairman of the board.[10] In February 2014, Sophos announced that it had acquired Cyberoam Technologies, a provider of network security products.[11] In June 2015, Sophos announced plans to raise $US100 million on the London Stock Exchange.[12] Sophos was floated on the FTSE in September 2015. [13]

On October 14, 2019, Sophos announced that Thoma Bravo, a US-based private equity firm, made an offer to acquire Sophos for $7.40 USD per share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $3.9 billion. The board of directors of Sophos stated their intention to unanimously recommend the offer to the company’s shareholders.[14] On March 2 2020, Sophos announced the completion of the acquisition. [15]

Acquisitions and partnerships

From September 2003 to February 2006, Sophos served as the parent company of ActiveState, a developer of programming tools for dynamic programming languages: in February 2006, ActiveState became an independent company when it was sold to Vancouver-based venture capitalist firm Pender Financial.[16] In 2007, Sophos acquired ENDFORCE, a company based in Ohio, United States, which developed and sold security policy compliance and Network Access Control (NAC) software.[17]

In July 2008, Sophos announced its intention to acquire Utimaco Safeware AG.[18] In July 2009, Sophos completed integration of Utimaco Safeware AG.[19] In May 2010, Sophos reached a definitive agreement to sell a majority interest in the company to Apax Partners, a global private equity group.[6]

In May 2011, Sophos announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Astaro, a privately held provider of network security solutions, headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts, United States; and Karlsruhe, Germany.[20] In 2012, Sophos acquired what remained of VirusBuster – a Hungarian antivirus firm – after the company had closed.[21] In April 2012, Sophos acquired DIALOGS, a privately held provider of mobile management solutions headquartered in Germany.[22]

In February 2014, Sophos announced that it had acquired Cyberoam Technologies, a network security company.[23] In October 2014, Sophos acquired Mojave Networks, a leading cloud-based security startup.[24] On 14 December 2015, Sophos acquired SurfRight, a small Dutch company behind HitmanPro to strengthen their endpoint protection products.[25] In November 2016, Sophos acquired Barricade, a pioneering start-up with a powerful behavior-based analytics engine built on machine learning techniques,[26] to strengthen synchronized security capabilities and next-generation network and endpoint protection. In February 2017, Sophos acquired Invincea, a software company that provides malware threat detection, prevention, and pre-breach forensic intelligence.[27][28][29]

In March 2020, Thoma Bravo acquired Sophos for $3.9 billion.[30]

gollark: IIRC it just uses a tree topology.
gollark: Doesn't that suffer horribly from netsplits?
gollark: I was looking at making it support networking together multiple skynet servers, for redundancy, but that never panned out because distributed systems design is very hard.
gollark: That was a feature meant to allow everyone basically the same access to information as skynet admins, but eh.
gollark: Apart from the ability to view past logs the Rust version is basically generally better.

See also

References
  1. "Annual Report 2018" (PDF). Sophos. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  2. "Sophos: the early years". Naked Security.
  3. "Exterminator Tools". Windows IT Pro. 15 November 1999. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  4. "Sophos acquires anti-spam specialist ActiveState". www.sophos.com. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  5. "Sophos Management Team | Global Leaders in IT Security". sophos.com.
  6. "Apax Partners to acquire majority stake in Sophos".
  7. "Board of Directors".
  8. "The Bureau Investigates article". Archived from the original on 4 December 2011.
  9. "Statement from Sophos on Recent Media Reports".
  10. "Sophos Board of Directors webpage".
  11. "Sophos Acquires Cyberoam to Boost Layered Defense Portfolio". Infosecurity Magazine.
  12. "Sophos Plans $100 Million London IPO".
  13. "Sophos joins the UK's top public companies in the FTSE 250".
  14. "Sophos founders exit before Thoma Bravo sale". Global Capital. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  15. "Sophos opens new chapter with take-private acquisition".
  16. "ActiveState Acquired by Employees and Pender Financial Group; Company Renews Focus on Tools and Solutions for Dynamic Languages". Business Wire. 22 February 2006. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  17. "Sophos buys Endforce for network access control". Network World. 11 January 2007. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  18. Adriaan du Plessis (2 October 2008). "Sophos completes takeover offer of Utimaco Safeware AG". ITWeb Technology News.
  19. "Sophos latest news".
  20. Robin Wauters (6 May 2011). "Sophos Acquires Internet Security Appliance Maker Astaro". TechCrunch. AOL.
  21. "Sophos to boost partners' profits with utility billing". Channel Web. 16 May 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  22. Emil Protalinski. "Sophos acquires mobile management provider Dialogs". ZDNet.
  23. "Sophos Acquires Network Security Firm Cyberoam Technologies - SecurityWeek.Com".
  24. "Sophos' Cloud Offerings Expand w/ Acquisition of Mojave".
  25. Wauters, Robin. "Sophos beefs up on online security, acquires Dutch security software firm SurfRight for $31.8 million". Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  26. https://www.sophos.com/en-us/press-office/press-releases/2016/11/sophos-acquires-security-analytics-start-up-in-ireland.aspx
  27. "Sophos Adds Advanced Machine Learning to Its Next-Generation Endpoint Protection Portfolio with Acquisition of Invincea". Sophos. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  28. "Sophos grows anti-malware ensemble with Invincea". Sophos. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017. One may ask, if you already have great next-generation technology, why do you need Invincea’s technology?...Think of Invincea as the superhero that takes our ensemble to the next level – the entity that adds neural network-based machine learning to the team.
  29. "Sophos to Acquire Invincea to Add Industry Leading Machine Learning to its Next Generation Endpoint Protection Portfolio". Invincea. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  30. "Thoma Bravo completes $3.9B Sophos acquisition". TechCrunch. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
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