Wheelings & Dealings: Trustwave Acquired by Singtel in $810 Million Deal

By Christopher Mohr
TMCnet Contributing Writer

Singtel acquired Trustwave last week in a deal totaling $810 million. As a result of the transaction, Singtel will be able to package cybersecurity with its cloud solutions and Trustwave will have a larger market in which to offer its products. According to ZDNet, Singtel would own 98 percent of Trustwave, while Trustwave’s CEO and chairman Robert McCullen would own the remaining two percent.

Based in Singapore, Singtel is the leading communications group in Asia.  The company’s strategy has included the purchase of other telecom companies, giving it a presence in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Australia and Africa. A slight majority of Singtel is owned by Temasek Holdings Private Limited, a wealth fund owned by the Singapore government.

Trustwave is a Chicago-based company that provides cybersecurity to businesses that help them deal with a combination of challenges and regulations. Many large companies must deal with regulations such as HIPAA, SOX, PCI (News - Alert) and numerous laws that deal with privacy. They also face malware attacks and vulnerabilities from BYOD policies and social media sites. These are all among the many issues Trustwave addresses with managed solutions and services.

The 2014 Trustwave Global Security Report contains several findings that if true, paint a picture of widespread vulnerability to security breaches.

Nearly three-fourths of the victims of data breaches that Trustwave investigated were found in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. The retail industry had a plurality of attacks with 35 percent of the total and e-commerce made up 54 percent of assets targeted. Eighty-five percent of detected exploits came from third-party plugins, including Java, Adobe (News - Alert) Flash, Acrobat and Reader. Trustwave also points out on its website that 19 percent of malware goes undetected by standard antivirus applications.

The acquisition of Trustwave would seem to be a great fit with Singtel’s cloud solution offerings. Any potential customer looking for a cloud provider to host its IT would be able to get those services, along with cybersecurity in a complete package. With all the regulatory challenges and potential attacks that many companies face, the combination of Singtel and an established security solutions company in Trustwave should attract many buyers.