VMware Carbon Black

History

Carbon Black was founded as Bit9 in 2002 by Todd Brennan, Allen Hillery, and John Hanratty. The company's first CEO was George Kassabgi. In 2007, Patrick Morley, the former chief operating officer of Corel, took over as CEO.

In 2013, the company's network was broken into by malicious actors who copied a private signing key for a certificate and used it to sign malware.

In February 2014, Bit9 acquired start-up security firm Carbon Black. At the time of the acquisition, the company also raised $38.25 million in Series E funding, bringing Bit9’s total venture capital raised to approximately $120 million. The company acquired Objective Logistics in June 2015. In August 2015, the company announced that it had acquired data analytics firm Visitrend and would open a technology development center in downtown Boston. A month later, the company announced it would partner with SecureWorks, Ernst & Young, Kroll, Trustwave, and Rapid7 to provide managed security and incident response services.

The company changed its name to Carbon Black on February 1, 2016, after being known as "Bit9 + Carbon Black" for approximately two years.

In July 2016, Carbon Black announced it had acquired next-generation antivirus software provider Confer for an undisclosed sum. Prior to the deal, Confer had raised $25 million in venture funding and had more than 50 employees. According to The Wall Street Journal, the deal was valued at $100 million.

On May 4, 2018, the company joined public markets, listing as "CBLK" on the Nasdaq exchange. As part of its initial public offering (IPO), Carbon Black raised approximately $152 million at a valuation of $1.25 billion. Prior to its IPO, the firm had raised $190M from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Highland Capital, Sequoia, Accomplice, and Blackstone.

In October 2019, the company was acquired by VMware for $2.1 billion.

On November 22, 2023, Broadcom Inc. acquired VMware in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at US$69 billion.

In March of 2024, Broadcom merged its existing Symantec security assets with Carbon Black assets to form the Enterprise Security Group.

References

References

1. "Carbon Black, Inc.: Private Company Information - Bloomberg".
2. (6 June 2014). "Advanced prevention: Nothing new, just better". Network World, June 6, 2014.
3. (May 4, 2018). "Carbon Black stocks close 26 percent up on first day of public trading". Cyberscoop.
4. "SEC S-1 Filing". SEC, 2018.
5. "Carbon Black Announces Second Quarter 2019 Financial Results".
6. Lardinois, Frederic. (August 23, 2019). "VMware acquires Carbon Black for $2.1B and Pivotal for $2.7 billion".
7. (August 5, 2012). "Dropbox's tale speaks to a Bay State weakness". [[The Boston Globe]].
8. "John Hanratty". [[Bloomberg L.P.]].
9. "George Kassabgi". Veracode, 2014.
10. (3 December 2007). "Bit9 Names New CEO". Dark Reading, December 3, 2007.
11. (18 September 2013). "Elite Chinese Cyberspy Group Behind Bit9 Hack". Dark Reading, September 18, 2013.
12. (12 March 2014). "What does the Bit9 and Carbon Black merger mean for businesses?". Tech Radar, March 12, 2014.
13. (May 2, 2018). "Carbon Black S-1/A Filing, pg. 11".
14. "Bit9 raises $38M, merges with Carbon Black in cybersecurity consolidation". Boston Business Journal, February 13, 2014.
15. "Exclusive: Bit9 acqui-hires Objective Logistics".
16. (August 27, 2015). "Bit9 + Carbon Black Continues Investment in Innovation by Acquiring Security Data Analytics Firm and Establishing Development Center in Boston".
17. "Bit9 + Carbon Black Announces the Addition of EY's Managed SOC to the "Bit9 + Carbon Black Connect" Alliance Partner Program - Bit9 + Carbon Black".
18. (2 September 2015). "Cutting-Edge MSSPs Supercharge their Services with Bit9 + Carbon Black, the Market Leader in Next-Gen Endpoint Security".
19. (February 1, 2016). "Bit9 + Carbon Black is Now Carbon Black - Carbon Black".
20. Zakrzewski, Cat. (2016-07-19). "Carbon Black to Acquire Confer in $100 M Deal". The Wall Street Journal.
21. (4 May 2018). "Carbon Black IPO Pops In Hot Cybersecurity Market". Investors Business Daily, May 4, 2018.
22. "Bit9 + Carbon Black Raises $54.5M - Carbon Black".
23. (October 8, 2019). "VMware Completes Acquisition of Carbon Black". [[GlobeNewswire]].
24. Lardinois, Frederic. (August 22, 2019). "VMware acquires Carbon Black for $2.1B and Pivotal for $2.7 billion".
25. (2023-11-23). "Chipmaker Broadcom completes $69bn deal to buy VMware".
26. (2024-03-11). "Broadcom Merges Symantec and Carbon Black Into New Business Unit".