Palo Alto CEO: CyberArk gives us AI identity security

Just a week ago there were reports that cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks (Nasdaq:PANW) was mulling the acquisition of Israeli cybersecurity company SentinelOne (NYSE: S). Then yesterday, Palo Alto Networks announced the huge acquisition of CyberArk Software (Nasdaq: CYBR) for $25 billion.

Talking to journalists after the acquisition was announced, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora and CyberArk founder and chairman Udi Mokady revealed that there never was a plan to buy SentinelOne. Mokady believes that people were trying to understand who Palo o Networks was about to buy and thought it was SentinelOne. When Arora was asked if Palo Alto had considered acquiring other companies, he smiled and said, “Not SentinelOne In my years in the industry, I’ve looked at hundreds of companies of all shapes and sizes. CyberArk was our number one choice. It’s the only one that does identity security on a large scale.”

Arora stressed that he has great respect and trust in the CyberArk team, and Mokedy said similar nice things about Palo Alto Networks. Mokedy emphasized that one of the significant considerations in the question of whether to sell to Palo Alto Networks was its connection to Israel. As you know, it is a US company, but its founder is Israel’s Nir Zuk, who serves as CTO, and it has a big presence in Israel after acquiring many companies here.

Arora says, “We are one of the largest cybersecurity employers in Israel. This proves that we know how to work well with teams in Israel, and great products have come out of it in the company. I see no reason why we shouldn’t continue this with CyberArk employees. I even talked to Udi about making more investments in Israel – the Israelis are amazing in cybersecurity.”

Mokady added, “Nikesh asked me: ‘Can you hire more employees in Israel? We’re running out of space in Israel. We need more buildings.'”

During the press conference, Mokady was asked why CyberArk was actually being acquired, and said that “we weren’t for sale. We see ourselves as the leaders in the field, and Palo Alto is a leader in many areas in cybersecurity. We saw a bright future ahead of us, but a field that is at an inflection point requires scale and requires running faster, and there is no comparison between what we can do alone and what we can do with Palo Alto. We would have achieved the opportunity on our own, but more slowly.” He added an image: “We’ve seen that we can cross the ocean with our boat, or go big with the aircraft carrier. CyberArk as Palo Alto’s identity security platform is a powerhouse. The combination is win-win for everyone: shareholders, employees, customers.”

Arora said that the negotiations lasted 3-4 months. When asked how involved Nir Zuk was in the deal, he replied: “Of course. He’s in charge of the product strategy and he was very enthusiastic. So enthusiastic that I was even a little scared,” he laughed.

The deal is mostly in shares ($45 in cash and 2,005 Palo Alto shares for each CyberArk share, for a total of $25 billion, although the amount will still change based on changes in Palo Alto’s share price until closing). According to Arora, “no board of directors would agree to a deal that was 90% equity if they didn’t believe in the company and the integration.” Mokady agreed that it was an expression of confidence in Palo Alto.

There was no talk of Mokady and CyberArk CEO Matt Cohen’s future after the deal is completed, but Arora noted that “Udi and Matt never asked about themselves, only about the future of the employees, the products and the customers.”

Arora was asked whether such a large acquisition was not a panic move, due to fears of competition, for example, from CrowdStrike. But according to him, the answer is no. “Companies like Salesforce and SAP have ‘platformized’ the HR field. Why shouldn’t this philosophy also be reflected in cybersecurity? We believe that with AI, the world is changing. Agents will become more popular, they are unsupervised and we need someone like CyberArk, who will monitor them in real time. I can’t wait 3-4 years and build a product. So the panic is from AI, not CrowdStrike. I want to be faster and get to market as soon as possible.”

Finally, Arora was asked whether he expected a challenge from regulators in approving the deal, and here too his answer was negative. “I’m not a regulatory expert, but from our understanding, there shouldn’t be an issue because there is no overlap between the companies,” he explained. “I always think about deals, even when I sleep, but I’m also disciplined and see if it makes sense. I’ve bought 24 companies over the years, but I fantasized about 400. There is product compatibility between Palo Alto and CyberArk, there is customer demand and they are happy about the deal, and we believe there will be acceleration in the field. Both companies were on an excellent track, and we hope that together we will be on an even better track.”

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on July 31, 2025.

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