Orange drops €515 million on yet another cybersecurity acquisition

French telecoms group Orange is buying Dutch cybersecurity services outfit SecureLink as it looks to become a major security player.

Orange’s security division already brings in around €300 million a year and this acquisition will almost double that. It comes just a few months after Orange spent an undisclosed amount to buy Securedata, which put €50 million more revenue into the pot, so probably cost in the region of €100 million.

SecureLink seems to be more about cybersecurity services and consulting than the actual software, but that includes a fair bit of value-added reseller work. It employs 660 people and has 2,100 customers. The total headcount for the whole of Orange’s cybersecurity division will be around 1,800 so this is a pretty major boost.

“Cybersecurity is a growing priority for companies of all sizes, and we believe the two most important success factors are Scale and Proximity,” said Hugues Foulon, Executive Director of Cybersecurity at Orange. “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 with Michel Van Den Berghe, CEO of Orange Cyberdefense, Thomas Fetten and all the teams”.

“We have been very impressed by the ambition and successful development of Orange Cyberdefense over the past few years, and are very excited to build a pan-European leader of cybersecurity together,” said Thomas Fetten, CEO at SecureLink. “Orange Cyberdefense, SecureData and SecureLink are highly complementary and share a common vision for the sector, and the combined organisation will be in a phenomenal position to address the needs of our customers, partners and employees.”