Microsoft Acquires Israel Based Data Protection Firm Secure Islands

[mks_dropcap style=”square” size=”52″ bg_color=”#ff3b3e” txt_color=”#ffffff”]M[/mks_dropcap]icrosoft has just announced acquisition of Israel based leader in data protection Secure islands. Two weeks ago, reports started surfacing about the merger of Secure Islands and Microsoft. Both Microsoft and Secure Islands have not disclosed the amount paid by Microsoft for this merger but it is believed to be between $100-$150 million. This is the fourth acquisition of an Israel based firm by Microsoft in year 2015. Previously Microsoft acquired Equivio, a provider of machine learning-powered compliance solutions in January, N-trig, a manufacturer of stylus and pen input hardware/software in February and Adallom, a cloud security provider in September.

Secure Islands was founded in 2006 by two brothers Aki Eldar and Yuval Eldar. “Today marks an incredibly exciting milestone for our company. We have reached an agreement to be acquired by Microsoft.” – Announced Aki Eldar, CEO of Secure Islands in a blog post. “By joining Microsoft, we will be able to extend and expand our vision. Microsoft’s resources and global reach will help us innovate and deliver new information protection capabilities to both our current and new customer base.” Aki further adds.

Secure Islands developed technology that allows tracking an organization’s documents throughout the web. It protects unstructured data throughout its life-cycle – from content creation through collaboration to storage. IQProtector, Secure Island’s flagship product, offers full protection for sensitive data by preforming data immunization on each and every file, whether it is at rest, in motion or in use and regardless of its location – whether on the organization’s premises, mobile devices or in the cloud. Secure Islands’ global customers includes UBS, OSRAM, Vodafone and Credit Suisse.

Secure Islands will continue to sell its existing solutions and support its customers.

This acquisition accelerates our ability to help customers secure their business data no matter where it is stored.

Microsoft plans to integrate Secure Islands’ technology into Azure Rights Management Service to provide a flexible architecture able to meet the most rigorous protection and compliance requirements. “These new capabilities, combined with the data classification in Windows and Office 365, will provide our customers with the industry’s most comprehensive data protection solution.” – Stated Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice president, Microsoft, in a blog post.

While this merger is still under process and subject to regulatory approval, it is clear that Microsoft is eyeing vast market of technologies. This is Microsoft’s 17th acquisition in year 2015 so far. Microsoft recently acquired Mobile Data Labs, Inc., a US based developer of milage tracking application – MileQ.

Sources : Microsoft and Secure Islands.