This week, US investment firm KKR has announced that it has completed its acquisition of California-based IT security company Barracuda Networks from fellow private equity company Thoma Bravo.
The financial details of the deal have not been announced, but inside sources have previously suggested a price tag of roughly $4 billion. 
Barracuda provides cybersecurity solutions to small and medium…

This week, US investment firm KKR has announced that it has completed its acquisition of California-based IT security company Barracuda Networks from fellow private equity company Thoma Bravo.

The financial details of the deal have not been announced, but inside sources have previously suggested a price tag of roughly $4 billion. 

Barracuda provides cybersecurity solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with over 200,000 customers around the world. 

Back when the deal was first announced in April, KKR said that it would seek to expand the company’s offerings in various key areas, including managed detection and response and secure access service edge technology. The firm also says that it will push Barracuda to expand further into international markets

“We continue to see cybersecurity as a highly attractive sector and are excited to back a clear leader in the space,” said John Park, the head of KKR’s Technology team within its Americas Private Equity platform, speaking when the deal was first announced. “Given its proven track record of growth and innovation, we believe that Barracuda has the right team and model to capture business in this growing market.”

“We’re ready to deliver on our next phase of growth with KKR and remain dedicated to investing in our team and product portfolio to provide innovative cybersecurity solutions for our customers and partners,” added Hatem Naguib, CEO of Barracuda. “We‘re grateful to Thoma Bravo for their valuable strategic and operational support over the last four years.”

Cybersecurity has seen a surge in interest from private equity firms since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with the increased focus on working from home leading to a concurrent boom in cybercrime that continues to this day, particularly in the form of ransomware attacks. 

KKR itself already has significant investments in the cybersecurity industry, most notably managed cybersecurity services firm Optiv Security Inc, which it acquired back in 2017 for almost $2 billion. Since then, Optiv has expanded into Canada and Europe via numerous acquisitions and is now reportedly valued at over $3 billion.

In February, reports suggested that KKR was exploring a sale or the launch of an initial public offering for Optiv.

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) first unveiled its private 5G services back in November last year, announcing that they were developing a private mobile network offering that would allow enterprises to deploy, operate, and scale up their own mobile networks “in a matter of days”.
Now, nine months later, the AWS Private 5G service has officially been launched…

Amazon Web Services (AWS) first unveiled its private 5G services back in November last year, announcing that they were developing a private mobile network offering that would allow enterprises to deploy, operate, and scale up their own mobile networks “in a matter of days”.

Now, nine months later, the AWS Private 5G service has officially been launched, with the cloud-specialist suggesting that the service would be both cheaper and simpler to deploy than comparable gear from a traditional mobile operator.

AWS says that enterprise customers renting the service from AWS can specify their unique network requirements during the purchasing process, with AWS then sending them the required hardware and SIM cards for self-service installation at the location, as well as providing assorted software. The private network will integrate directly with AWS’s various security and observation resources, such as AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

“This cool new service lets you design and deploy your own private mobile network in a matter of days. It is easy to install, operate, and scale, and does not require any specialized expertise. You can use the network to communicate with the sensors & actuators in your smart factory, or to provide better connectivity for handheld devices, scanners, and tablets for process automation,” explained AWS Chief Evangelist Jeff Barr in a company blog post.

The service will provide a consistent throughput to multiple devices, as well as the ultra-low latency required for real-time automation.

“Each network supports one radio unit that can provide up to 150 Mbps of throughput spread across up to 100 SIMs. We are working to add support for multiple radio units and greater number of SIM cards per network,” explained Barr.

The service is set to be sold to customers by the radio unit, with each unit charged at $10 per hour, with a minimum contract length of 60 days. This means that operating a single radio unit for 10-hours a day for 255 days (a standard working year) would cost $25,500.

For now, the AWS Private 5G service confusingly only supports 4G LTE services, with 5G capabilities expected to be delivered at an unspecified future date. 

The service is currently only available three US regions so far – US East (Ohio), US East (North Virginia), and US West (Oregon) – but a wider rollout in the US and internationally is being planned. 

Will the launch of AWS Private 5G reshape the enterprise market space for telcos? Join the operators in discussions at the upcoming Connected America conference 

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In recent years, Malaysia’s journey towards 5G has been bottlenecked due to the highly unorthodox approach taken by the government, eschewing the conventional wisdom of a spectrum auction and instead launching a nationwide 5G wholesaler, DNB. 
Even before DNB’s official launch in early 2021, the operators had been lambasting the government for its decision, saying they could roll out 5G themselves far more effectively and efficiently, as well as raising issues of DBN’s high pricing and lack of transparency…

In recent years, Malaysia’s journey towards 5G has been bottlenecked due to the highly unorthodox approach taken by the government, eschewing the conventional wisdom of a spectrum auction and instead launching a nationwide 5G wholesaler, DNB. 

Even before DNB’s official launch in early 2021, the operators had been lambasting the government for its decision, saying they could roll out 5G themselves far more effectively and efficiently, as well as raising issues of DBN’s high pricing and lack of transparency. The government, on the other hand, countered that DBN would eliminate the problem of overbuild and offer Malaysian customers around the country a greater choice of mobile service provides. 

By early 2022, the Malaysian telcos were still refusing to engage with DNB, leading the government to propose that the operators take a combined 70% stake in DNB to assuage their doubts. While this plan was initially met with relative optimism from the telcos, they continued to negotiate with the government around potential ownership structures.

Ultimately, the government lost patience earlier this summer, telling the telcos that they had an August deadline to take a stake in DNB or else miss out on access to 5G spectrum entirely. The government also said that it would offer foreign operators a chance to enter the market by taking a stake in DBN if the domestic players refused to do so. 

Now, it seems that this threat of being cut off from 5G and replaced by foreign operators has been effective, with all of the country’s major operators having agreed take a stake in the DNB. Details relating to the wholesaler’s 5G network access, however, are still being ironed out.

Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, speaking to Malaysian media, said Maxis and U Mobile were the last of the operators to confirm they would take a stake, with Celcom, DiGi, YTL, and Telekom Malaysia having already quietly agreed to do so in the past couple of months.

« All the key terms were finalised last Monday (Aug 8). One or two came very, very last minute and only because they realised if I don’t come in, my competition is there, » Tengku Zafrul told The Straits Times, noting interest from companies in India, Hong Kong, and Singapore. 

“There are many who have registered strong interest […] because to them there is no more capex. And then they say we have got the technology and we know how to play the game,” he added.

For now, it is unclear on the size of stakes agreed by each operator; the government had previously said that no operator could own a stake greater than 20% in DNB, or 25% in the case of mergers between two operators. The government will hold the remaining 30% stake.

But while this represents a major milestone on the road to Malaysian 5G, the process could still falter, with questions around DBN’s network quality and cost still remaining for the operators.

In recent months, Tengku Zafrul has been adamant that the government would not budge from its end-of-August deadline for the operators to sign 5G agreements with DNB, but even he admits that negotiations are likely to continue beyond the deadline due to the complexity of the matter.

In fact, Maxis and U Mobile are reportedly still hopeful that the government will agree to a dual national 5G model, whereby they build and operate a second wholesale 5G network.

However, with foreign operators reportedly lining up to take a stake in DNB and the country’s 5G development falling further and further behind their regional rivals, the government may be unwilling to talk for much longer. 

The government has said in the past that 5G in Malaysia will generate around 750,000 jobs and $145 billion in economic value for the country by 2030.