BlackBerry said on Friday it has entered into an agreement to acquire Cylance, an artificial intelligence and cybersecurity firm, for US $1.4 billion in cash.
Cylance is a pioneer in applying artificial intelligence, algorithmic science, and machine learning to cybersecurity software that has proven highly effective at predicting and preventing known and unknown threats to fixed endpoints.
BlackBerry, which dominated the smartphone market a few years ago, has recently reinvented itself, and has shifted its focus from the making smartphones to the sale of software for the management of mobile devices, and other areas such as autonomous vehicles.
“Cylance’s leadership in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity will immediately complement our entire portfolio, UEM and QNX in particular. We are very excited to onboard their team and leverage our newly combined expertise,” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO of BlackBerry.
“We believe adding Cylance’s capabilities to our trusted advantages in privacy, secure mobility, and embedded systems will make BlackBerry Spark indispensable to realizing the Enterprise of Things,” he added.
“Our highly skilled cybersecurity workforce and market leadership in next-generation endpoint solutions will be a perfect fit within BlackBerry where our customers, teams and technologies will gain immediate benefits from BlackBerry’s global reach,” said Stuart McClure, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Cylance.
The deal is expected to close prior to the end of BlackBerry’s current fiscal year, which is February 2019.
