US cybersecurity companies McAfee Enterprise and FireEye have merged to form a “stronger entity”, named Trellix, to thwart cyber attacks and fight sophisticated criminals, the new company’s chief executive Bryan Palma said.
Trellix will be a part of California-based private equity firm Symphony Technology Group that has a portfolio of more than 35 global companies.
The new company is valued about $1.7 billion. With about 4,500 employees around the world, it has more than 40,000 customers globally.
The merger was originally announced in October, but the new brand identity and other details were made public on Wednesday.
Middle East customers are very conscious about cyber security and this market will a key growth area for us ... we are also looking to have good business from Asia, Europe and the US market
Bryan Palma,
chief executive of Trellix
Trellix will deliver “XDR [extended detection and response] capabilities to organisations through machine learning and automation”, Mr Palma told The National in an exclusive interview.
“Trellix’s XDR platform protects our customers as we bring security to life with automation, machine learning, extensible architecture and threat intelligence.”
The fresh brand identity and collaborative efforts will result in robust growth for the new company, Mr Palma said.
“Rebranding the company is a significant investment … part of the reason why we are doing it is to achieve fast growth. Going by the market trends, we aim to grow [our revenue] in double digits … we see that as an opportunity over the next couple of years,” he added.
The XDR ecosystem lets users ingest more than 600 security technologies. By providing security analysts with better insight, granting more control and delivering comprehensive threat context, it can save time and act decisively to remediate threats.
Trellix is also looking towards going public in the coming years.
“We are highly profitable and are very well positioned. We would love to go public at the right time … but for now, we are focused on executing our strategy and delivering right security tools to our customers,” said Mr Palma, without specifying when that might occur.
Increasing complexities of cyber attacks have driven the former competitors to join forces and act as a single unit, said Mr Palma, who was previously an executive vice president of FireEye’s product division.
“We are seeing very complex attacks … this is what we saw with SolarWinds breach, Microsoft’s zero-day vulnerability and the recent Log4Jj attacks on supply chains … [and] with many people working remotely due to Covid, criminals are finding new vulnerabilities and orchestrating more sophisticated attacks.
“We thought about the situation and also the best solutions … we really reached this position where putting McAfee and FireEye together was going to add a lot of synergy to our portfolio and Trellix came out of it.”
The company aims to offer both in-premise and cloud security solutions to its customers.
From an investment perspective, the company’s strong focus will be on artificial intelligence and machine learning, said Mr Palma.
“We are moving the industry from detection and response perspective to an immediate automated remediation,” he added.
To spread the word about the new brand, Trellix will be “investing a lot” in running media campaigns across different platforms, he said.
The global cybersecurity market size is forecast to grow to $345.4bn by 2026, a jump of more than 58.5 per cent from $217.9bn last year, Statista reported.
Cyber security is the practice of protecting computer information systems, hardware, network and confidential data from cyber attacks. An increasing awareness of cyber threats has led to a rising investment in cybersecurity infrastructure worldwide.
Mr Palma said amid the booming cybersecurity industry, the Middle East will be their key market for growth.
“Both FireEye and McAfee have done very well in the region, and we will continue to invest there.
“Middle East customers are very conscious about cyber security and this market will a key growth area for us. We are also looking to have good business from Asia, Europe and the US market.”
He also said ransomware and supply chain attacks will dominate the industry in the coming months and so protecting against threats to cryptocurrencies, social media and Internet of Things devices should also be top priorities.
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Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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The biog
Name: Mariam Ketait
Emirate: Dubai
Hobbies: I enjoy travelling, experiencing new things, painting, reading, flying, and the French language
Favourite quote: "Be the change you wish to see" - unknown
Favourite activity: Connecting with different cultures
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Place of birth: Kalba
Family: Mother of eight children and has 10 grandchildren
Favourite traditional dish: Al Harees, a slow cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled cracked or coarsely ground wheat mixed with meat or chicken
Favourite book: My early life by Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, the Ruler of Sharjah
Favourite quote: By Sheikh Zayed, the UAE's Founding Father, “Those who have no past will have no present or future.”
