Orange’s Acquisition of SecureLink, Set To Expand Cybersecurity Market

In the very dynamic and highly competitive cybersecurity market, vendors of various security products and services are trying to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The more hyped-up product or services does not equally translate to more profit, but an unknown product/service is a waste of R&D if it is not promoted. In order to re-position themselves better in a competitive market, mergers or acquisitions became a norm. The latest news about such an acquisition event happened when Orange publicly disclosed its full acquisition of SecureLink for €515 million.

SecureLink is a cybersecurity service vendor based in the Netherlands with strong markets in Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom. They have a minority market share for the rest of Europe, the acquisition makes Orange a key cybersecurity services provider in Europe with possible expansion opportunities in the near future. “With this acquisition, Orange becomes one of the European leaders of cybersecurity with c.1,800 employees, more than €600m PF revenues in 2018 and strong positions in major local markets through its unique European DNA and a comprehensive cybersecurity services offering,” explained Orange.com in their official Press Statement.

SecureLink’s portfolio includes security maintenance contracts, service desk services, cybersecurity consulting contracts, including advanced managed detection. Aside from that SecureLink is also a reseller of products from top-level hardware security vendors. The company is very profitable, with aggregate 2018 revenues to the tune of €248 million. With 14 offices globally, it is serving around 2,100 corporate customers.

“Cybersecurity is a growing priority for companies of all sizes, and we believe the two most important success factors are Scale and Proximity. Scale because today’s threats are global, complex, and require matching protection capabilities. Proximity because in the global IT world, you want a trusted local partner to secure your most strategic assets. With the acquisition of SecureData and SecureLink, Orange has the highest scale to anticipate and fend off attacks, as well as local defense teams in all the main European markets, positioning the combined organisation as the go-to defense specialist. I am looking forward to building the integrated organisation,” emphasized Hugues Foulon, Orange’s Executive Director of Cybersecurity.

Orange itself is a very profitable company, as their 2019 First Quarter result disclosed a 30% revenue increase. Their entire portfolio before the acquisition recorded a growth of €10.2 billion. The whole acquisition is expected to be completed up to the third quarter of 2019.

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