Israeli-US co ForeScout makes $113m acquisition

ForeScout Photo: Prospectus
ForeScout Photo: Prospectus

ForeScout, which also released better than expected third quarter financials, has bought SecurityMatters, based in the US and the Netherlands.

A year after its IPO on Nasdaq, Israeli-US IoT (Internet of Things) security company ForeScout Technologies (FSCT) has made an acquisition. ForeScout announced on Thursday that it was buying SecurityMatters for $113 million, and at the same time released good quarterly financials, surpassing market estimates. ForeScout's share price leapt 13.2% in after-hours trading.

ForeScout provides agentless cybersecurity solutions. The acquired company, SecurityMatters (which has no connection with the Israeli company of the same name traded on the Australian Securities Exchange) provides operational technology (OT) network protection. It is based in the US and the Netherlands.

ForeScout Technologies CEO and president Michael DeCesare said, "We are excited about strengthening and accelerating our opportunity in the OT market with our acquisition of SecurityMatters, which makes us the industry's only vendor able to provide deep and continuous end-to-end agentless device visibility and control across the extended enterprise - from the campus to data center, cloud and OT environments."

ForeScout says that the acquisition is expected to expand its current total addressable market by approximately 50% to 2.1 billion enterprise devices, from a previous 1.4 billion devices.

The acquisition was for cash and has already been completed. At the end of the third quarter, before the acquisition, ForeScout had $210 million cash.

ForeScout's third quarter revenue was $85.6 million, representing an increase of 23% over the third quarter of 2017. On a GAAP basis, the company posted a net loss of $8.3 million, or $0.20 per share, which compares with $1.3 million in the third quarter of 2017, or $0.21 per share. On a non-GAAP basis, it posted a net profit of $5.1 million, or $0.10 per share, which compares with $2.6 million, or $0.08 per share, in the third quarter of 2017. Analysts had been expecting a net loss.

"Revenue growth of 23% exceeded our guidance for the third quarter, driven by strong product revenue growth from CounterACT sales and continued momentum with our Extended Modules," said ForeScout CFO Criss Harms.

For the full year, ForeScout expects revenue of $288.7-291.7 million, representing year-over-year growth of 29% at the midpoint, and a non-GAAP net loss per share of $0.67-0.69 $0.67.

ForeScout was founded by its chairman Hezy Yeshurun, its CTO Oded Comay, its chief architect Dror Comay, Doron Shikmoni, and Noga Alon.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 12, 2018

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018

ForeScout Photo: Prospectus
ForeScout Photo: Prospectus
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