Dell Sells RSA Security for More Than $2 Billion

On Tuesday, Dell Technologies Inc. announced the sale of RSA Security to a consortium headed by Palo Alto, Calif.-based private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG) for more than $2 billion.

RSA Security — which Dell acquired when it bought Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC Corp. in 2016 for $67 billion — provides more than 12,000 customers with security and risk management software, including the encryption technology for which the company is named. The all-cash transaction includes the purchase of RSA Archer, RSA NetWitness Platform, RSA SecurID, RSA Fraud and Risk Intelligence and RSA Conference.

Since that time, though, Dell has bolstered its own security software portfolio, including Secureworks, a cybersecurity company in which Dell has majority ownership. Following a disappointing Q3 in November of 2019, rumors have gathered steam that Dell might shed RSA Security.

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According to a Dell statement, selling RSA coheres with Dell’s own long-term security strategy of developing automation and intelligence in its portfolio.

Selling RSA will allow Dell to “simplify our business and product portfolio,” wrote Jeff Clarke, chief operating officer and vice chairman of Dell Technologies in a blog post. “It also allows Dell to focus on our strategy to build automated and intelligent security into infrastructure, platforms and devices to keep data safe, protected and resilient.”

The sale comes just a week before RSA Conference is due to kick off Feb. 24 in San Francisco. The deal is expected to close in the next six to nine months.

According to some security experts, the sale may bode well for RSA Security, where breaking up its elements may bolster components’ individual value.

“I’ve long believed that RSA may be worth more if it were broken up than sold as a whole,” said Eric Parizo senior analyst at Omdia, in an article on the sale of RSA by Dell on Channel Futures. “Its various product lines are hardly complementary, and its product lines may be more valuable.”

This may signal further changes for the constituent elements of RSA Security in the coming months.