August Cyber Intelligence Review
Several noteworthy acquisitions and VC investments took place in the Cyber / Intelligence arena during July, as the areas of Cloud and Big Data continue to generate significant interest among both strategic and financial investors.
Additionally, cybersecurity remained at the forefront of national awareness as the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) announced a significant jump in the number of critical infrastructure breaches that took place in 2011.
VMware made a splash this past month, spending over $1 billion on two acquisitions to reinforce its position as a leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions. It made a particularly strong statement with its acquisition of 100 person startup Nicira for $1.2 billion.
On the funding side, Trinity Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers were active in the month of July, both participating in three separate rounds of funding for three different companies. Additionally, Palo Alto Networks and Kayak Software posted substantial returns during their initial public offerings on July 17th, both closing with gains of more than 25%. This high level of funding activity aligns with the recent theme of increased investment in the cyber arena by venture capital funds.
