Cybersecurity M&A Roundup: 37 Deals Announced in October 2026
Summary
SecurityWeek tracked 37 cybersecurity M&A deals announced in October 2026, including acquisitions and proposed deals involving Absolute Security, Cohere, Hex-Rays, IonQ, Proofpoint and other companies.
Key points
- Absolute Security acquired FirmGuard, a firmware security and management business, and plans to integrate it with its firmware-embedded persistence technology.
- Cohere signed a letter of intent to acquire AISLE, whose AI systems find and help patch vulnerabilities in critical software, and plans to establish a cybersecurity unit.
- Hex-Rays agreed to acquire HexAI, whose AI agents analyze source code and binaries for vulnerabilities, malware and backdoors.
- IonQ agreed to acquire zero-trust security firm Elisity in a deal valued at up to $1.3 billion, including performance-based earnouts.
- Proofpoint agreed to acquire data security company Varonis for roughly $6.3 billion in cash.
Article Details
- Event Type
- Cybersecurity mergers and acquisitions announced in October 2026
- Impact
- SecurityWeek tracked 37 deals. The highlighted deals include acquisitions and planned acquisitions involving endpoint security, application security, confidential AI, vulnerability analysis, reverse engineering, zero trust, and data security businesses. Reported terms include IonQ’s Elisity deal, valued at up to $1.3 billion, and Proofpoint’s Varonis deal, valued at roughly $6.3 billion; terms for other highlighted deals were undisclosed or not specified. IonQ’s acquisition of Elisity was expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
People
Aaron FulkersonOpaque Systems CEO reportedly among the engineers Anthropic would hire as part of its agreed acquisition of Opaque Systems.Ondřej VlčekAISLE CEO; the article says he will become senior vice president at Cohere following its planned acquisition of AISLE.Rishabh PoddarOpaque Systems CTO reportedly among the engineers Anthropic would hire as part of its agreed acquisition of Opaque Systems.
Vendors
Absolute SecurityAbsolute Security acquires FirmGuardAikidoAikido Security acquires OutKept and CyberlyAisleCohere to acquire AISLEAnthropicAnthropic to acquire Opaque SystemsCohereCohere to acquire AISLECyberlyAikido Security acquires OutKept and CyberlyElisityIonQ has to acquire ElisityHex-RaysHex-Rays to acquire HexAIHexAIHex-Rays to acquire HexAIIonQIonQ has to acquire ElisityOpaque SystemsAnthropic to acquire Opaque SystemsOutKeptAikido Security acquires OutKept and CyberlyPhoenix TechnologiesEndpoint security and cyber resilience firm Absolute Security has acquired FirmGuard, the UEFI BIOS firmware security and management business of Phoenix Technologies.ProofpointProofpoint to acquire VaronisVaronisProofpoint to acquire Varonis
Products
Absolute PersistenceAbsolute will integrate FirmGuard with its firmware-embedded Absolute Persistence technology, adding below-the-OS management, continuous firmware integrity monitoring and patching, and compliance enforcement.FirmGuardAbsolute Security acquires FirmGuardIDA ProHex-Rays, the Belgian company behind the IDA Pro reverse engineering tool, has agreed to acquire HexAI, an Israeli startup founded in 2025.IdentityGraphIonQ will combine its post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution technology with Elisity’s IdentityGraph platform, which enforces least-privilege access for users, devices, workloads and AI agents.