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Cohesity & Veritas combine to form new AI data security titan
Fri, 9th Feb 2024

Cohesity and Veritas Data Protection Business have announced their intention to combine, thereby shaping a fresh authority in AI-powered data security and management. The businesses will merge under the Cohesity name, with Sanjay Poonen leading as CEO. The new entity anticipates pro forma annual revenues of $1.6 billion and ARR of $1.3 billion, with a 27% adjusted cash EBITDA margin. As a result, it will possess the capacity to cater to over 10,000 combined clients, among them 96 of the Fortune 100.

CEO Sanjay Poonen commented on the impending journey, "This deal will combine Cohesity's speed and innovation with Veritas global presence and installed base. We will lead the next era of AI-powered data security and management by bringing together the best of both product portfolios - Cohesity’s scale-out architecture ideally suited for modern workloads and strong Generative AI and security capabilities and Veritas' broad workload support and significant global footprint, particularly in the Global 500 and large public sector agencies."

The combined organisation will continue to advance the roadmap and strategy of all Cohesity products and services, as well as Veritas NetBackup, NetBackup appliances, and Alta data protection offerings, moving towards the delivery of an integrated solution that combines the best technology from both firms.

Sanjay Poonen added, "We are deeply committed to our mission to protect the world's data. This combination will benefit our collective 10,000 customers and 3,000 partners, and I can’t wait to work with the Veritas team to bring our vision to life."

Also playing a key role in the fused company's future will be Greg Hughes, CEO of Veritas, who will operate as a board member and strategic advisor post-transaction. Hughes commented, "Veritas and Cohesity share a common vision of empowering businesses to protect their critical data assets in the face of evolving cyber threats and complex hybrid cloud environments."

Poonen stressed upon the unwavering long-term commitment that both Cohesity and Veritas possess for customers. "Existing products will continue to be supported for many years while leveraging joint best-of-breed technologies to provide the most innovative roadmap for a future that delights customers," Poonen said. "We are deeply committed to both Cohesity and Veritas customers, partners, and employees as we accelerate customer-driven innovation as one company."

In terms of market placement, the conjoined companies aim to address a total addressable market (TAM) of over $30 billion, a figure that includes the data replication and protection software market, estimated to be $12.2 billion in 2024. With expanded geographic footprint and augmented R&D resources, the combined company aims to accelerate new customer adoption and deployment of innovative solutions in the quickly growing data security and management segment.