One of many big purchases in the industry
While the terms are confidential, sources have reported the price of the Hornetsecurity purchase, which is expected to close in the second half of 2025, to be well over $1 billion. This would make it Proofpoint’s largest acquisition, and also one of the biggest cybersecurity deals in recent years.
Proofpoint is also reaping the benefits of Hornetsecurity’s own acquisition strategy. In March 2024, it acquired Vade, an AI-based email security platform that analyzes more than 2.5 billion messages daily. This helped Hornetsecurity bolster its detection capabilities for business email compromise (BEC) and spear phishing. The company has also enhanced its platform through several other acquisitions, including Altospam (anti-phishing software), IT-Seal (cybersecurity training), Zerospam (email security and anti-spam), and Everycloud (email security).
Proofpoint has also been exploring other acquisitions and different funding routes as it reportedly prepares to return to public markets in 2026. Earlier this year, it also expanded its global partnership with Microsoft, using Microsoft Azure’s AI capabilities and cloud infrastructure to enhance threat protection and data security.
