LevelBlue acquires Cybereason in a quiet end to a once-soaring cybersecurity star
The Boston- and Tel Aviv-based company had raised over $900 million before succumbing to industry headwinds.
LevelBlue, a provider of managed security services, has agreed to acquire Cybereason, the embattled cybersecurity company once valued at over $3 billion.
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The acquisition, announced Tuesday, unites LevelBlue’s AI-powered managed detection and response (MDR) capabilities with Cybereason’s Extended Detection and Response (XDR) platform, digital forensics, and incident response services.
The deal, whose financial terms were not disclosed, is estimated to be a stock agreement, with SoftBank Corp., SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Liberty Strategic Capital becoming investors in LevelBlue. Steven Mnuchin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and head of Liberty Strategic Capital, will join LevelBlue’s board of directors.
The announcement follows years of upheaval at Cybereason, which had struggled to stabilize itself after internal conflicts, layoffs, and a steep valuation decline.
Founded in 2012 by Lior Div, Yonatan Striem-Amit, and Yossi Naar, and long hailed as one of Israel’s most promising cybersecurity companies, Cybereason plunged into crisis after rapid expansion and a failed IPO attempt.
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Earlier this year, Cybereason secured a $120 million emergency investment led by SoftBank and Liberty Strategic Capital in a last-ditch effort to stabilize operations. The infusion came amid boardroom disputes and a lawsuit filed by former CEO Eric Gan, who accused the company’s largest investors of obstructing financing efforts to consolidate control.
In 2019 and 2021, the company raised hundreds of millions of dollars, and at its peak, during a fundraising round in July 2021, one of the largest in Israel’s cybersecurity sector, its valuation was estimated at around $3 billion. Within just a year, that value fell to approximately $300 million.
In 2022–2023, like many companies in the industry, the firm faced challenges due to the closure of the IPO market. Between 2022 and 2024, it conducted three major rounds of layoffs: in June 2022, it dismissed about 100 employees (6% of the workforce); in October 2022, another 200 employees (17%), including 50 in Israel; and in March 2024, it laid off several dozen more as part of a significant reorganization.
In November 2024, Cybereason announced a merger agreement with Trustwave, but it ultimately did not materialize. In July of this year, LevelBlue announced that it had acquired Trustwave.
“The addition of Cybereason is a strategic leap forward in our mission to become the most complete cybersecurity partner,” said Bob McCullen, LevelBlue’s chairman and CEO. “By combining Cybereason’s world-class XDR and DFIR capabilities with our AI-powered MDR and incident response, we can deliver unified protection that’s proactive, scalable, and purpose-built for today’s fast-evolving threats.”
