VMware Carbon Black (formerly Bit9, Bit9 + Carbon Black, and Carbon Black) is a cybersecurity company based in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the Technological and industrial history of the United States, American Industrial Revoluti ...

. The company develops cloud-native

endpoint security Endpoint security or endpoint protection is an approach to the protection of computer networks that are remotely bridged to client devices. The connection of endpoint devices such as laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and other wireless devices t ...

software that is designed to detect malicious behavior and to help prevent malicious files from attacking an organization. The company leverages technology known as the Carbon Black Cloud (CBC), a

big data Big data primarily refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data processing, data-processing application software, software. Data with many entries (rows) offer greater statistical power, while data with ...

and analytics

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

platform that analyzes customers’ unfiltered data for threats. The company has approximately 100 partners. It has over 5,600 customers including approximately one-third of the ''Fortune'' 100. In October 2019, the company was acquired by VMware.

History

Carbon Black was founded as Bit9 in 2002 by Todd Brennan, Allen Hillery, and John Hanratty. The company's first CEO was George Kassabgi. In 2007, Patrick Morley, the former

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

Corel Cascade Parent Limited, doing business as Alludo ( ), is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation ( ; from the abbreviation "Cowpland Research Laborat ...

, took over as CEO. In 2013, the company's network was broken into by malicious actors who copied a private signing key for a certificate and used it to sign

malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...

. In February 2014, Bit9 acquired start-up security firm Carbon Black. At the time of the acquisition, the company also raised $38.25 million in Series E funding, bringing Bit9’s total venture capital raised to approximately $120 million. The company acquired Objective Logistics in June 2015. In August 2015, the company announced that it had acquired

data analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data, which also falls under and directly relates to the umbrella term, data sci ...

firm Visitrend and would open a technology development center in downtown

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. A month later, the company announced it would partner with

SecureWorks Secureworks Inc. is an American cybersecurity company. The company has approximately 4,000 customers in more than 50 countries, ranging from Fortune 100 companies to mid-sized businesses in a variety of industries. It became part of Dell, Dell ...

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

, Kroll, Trustwave, and

Rapid7 The Metasploit Project is a computer security project that provides information about security vulnerabilities and aids in penetration testing and IDS signature development. It is owned by Boston, Massachusetts-based security company, Rapid7. ...

to provide managed security and incident response services. The company changed its name to Carbon Black on February 1, 2016, after being known as "Bit9 + Carbon Black" for approximately two years. In July 2016, Carbon Black announced it had acquired next-generation

antivirus software Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name ...

provider Confer for an undisclosed sum. Prior to the deal, Confer had raised $25 million in venture funding and had more than 50 employees. According to ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', the deal was valued at $100 million. On May 4, 2018, the company joined public markets, listing as "CBLK" on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

exchange. As part of its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(IPO), Carbon Black raised approximately $152 million at a valuation of $1.25 billion. Prior to its IPO, the firm had raised $190M from investors including

Kleiner Perkins Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...

, Highland Capital, Sequoia,

Accomplice Aiding and abetting is a legal doctrine related to the guilt of someone who aids or abets (encourages, incites) another person in the commission of a crime (or in another's suicide). It exists in a number of different countries and generally al ...

, and Blackstone. In October 2019, the company was acquired by VMware for $2.1 billion. On November 22, 2023,

Broadcom Inc. Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, ...

acquired VMware in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

69 billion. In March of 2023, Broadcom merged its existing Symantec security assets with Carbon Black assets to form the Enterprise Security Group.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.carbonblack.com/ Software companies based in Massachusetts Companies based in Waltham, Massachusetts Software companies established in 2002 2002 establishments in Massachusetts Computer security companies Computer security software companies Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 2018 initial public offerings 2019 mergers and acquisitions VMware Software companies of the United States