Trend Micro, a leading Japanese cybersecurity firm valued at $6.5 billion, is considering a sale following interest from potential buyers, Reuters news report said.
Trend Micro is working with investment bankers to gauge interest from potential buyers, including private equity firms, though no deal is guaranteed at this stage.
Founded in 1988 by industry veterans Steve Chang, Jenny Chang, and Eva Chen, Trend Micro began as an antivirus software provider and has since broadened its scope to include cloud computing, network, and endpoint security.
Despite its growth, the company has faced challenges, with its stock declining by over 10 percent this year, underperforming the broader Japanese market and struggling to compete with larger U.S. rivals like Crowdstrike, Microsoft, and Palo Alto Networks.
Trend Micro’s interest in a potential sale comes as it seeks to capture market share from competitors like Crowdstrike, which recently faced a global outage caused by a software update that disrupted over 8 million computers, impacting sectors from aviation to healthcare.
Trend Micro reported revenue of $440 million (up 13 percent) with 42 percent rise in operating income to $78 million, driven by improvements in its operating margin.
For 2024, Trend Micro is targeting revenue of $1,843 million and operating income of $359 million.
Eva Chen, Co-Founder and CEO, said: “We are innovating across our Trend Vision One platform, helping organizations to embrace AI for better business outcomes while more effectively managing enterprise cyber risk.”
Streamlined cyber risk management and contextualized visibility drove security teams to increasingly rely upon Trend, resulting in a 13 percent growth of protected enterprise assets totaling more than 82 million.
The cybersecurity industry has seen a surge in dealmaking, with increasing investments in security software by global corporations. Notably, in July, Google parent Alphabet attempted to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz in a $23 billion deal.
