Trustwave Acquired By Singtel, Plans Managed Security Expansion

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Managed security services provider Trustwave says its acquisition by Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) is a positive move for both its channel partners and customers.

Trustwave announced completion of the acquisition on Tuesday. The company remains based in Chicago, is now a standalone business unit within Singtel Group Enterprise and will continue operating under the Trustwave brand.

Singtel has a presence in Asia, Australia and Africa, with more than 550 million mobile customers in 25 countries, including India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. It also has offices throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States.

The purchase price is $770 million.

Trustwave spokesperson Cas Purdy tells Channel Partners that the company has thousands of partners globally, and because it is continuing as a standalone business, its partners and partner programs will remain intact and unaffected by the acquisition.

“Our partners play a key role in the success of Trustwave globally,” he said. “Whether reseller or technology partners, you’ll continue to see us increase our collaboration with our partners so we can continue to help them expand their business while extending our leadership in cyber security.”

By 2020, 40 percent of all security technology purchases will be directly influenced by managed security service providers (MSSPs), according to IT research firm Gartner. The managed-security services (MSS) market also is estimated to grow from more than $15 billion this year to more than $27 billion in 2019.

“Many of our channel partners recognize this massive growth opportunity,” Purdy said. “They are partnering with us because we have assembled and built the right mix of services and technology that can help channel partners expand opportunities with their clients. We’ve seen more and more partners embrace managed security services as business clients increasingly move to the managed model.”

Joining Singtel also brings a number of enhancements to Trustwave’s managed security services portfolio, he said.

“For example, Singtel brings a wealth of data from its …

… massive, Asia Pacific network backbone and Security Operations Center (SOC) that Trustwave plans to use to feed additional threat intelligence into Trustwave managed security services,” Purdy said. “Joining Singtel also increases the collective managed security services capacity of Trustwave by expanding its global footprint from six global SOCs to eight, including the Singapore SOC and one planned in Australia. Trustwave will also leverage Singtel’s strategic industry technology partnerships to deliver additional advanced, third-party services to customers.”

Trustwave brings to Singtel a number of cybersecurity assets and capabilities, such as more than 3 million business subscribers in 96 countries, more than 1,200 security-focused employees in 26 countries, and six global SOCs, four in North America, one in Asia Pacific and one in Europe. It also brings a portfolio of security technologies and intellectual property with 56 patents either granted or pending.

“Trustwave can leverage Singtel’s assets and extensive market presence to broaden its overall security portfolio and address the fast-growing security market opportunity, especially in the Asia Pacific region,” said Bill Chang, Singtel Group Enterprise’s CEO. “Together, we are also strengthening our managed security services capabilities to meet the increasing demand of enterprises worldwide for a trusted partner to secure their networks, mobility platforms, devices, IT, applications and databases.”