In brief

Dale Peterson argues that Accenture’s majority-stake deal with Dragos, alongside its acquisitions of runZero and NetRise, could be one of the most important events in the OT security market since Colonial Pipeline. He is usually skeptical when acquired companies promise to remain independent, but in this case he finds Dragos’ autonomy more credible because Accenture did not buy the whole company, the deal may include protections for minority owners, and much of Dragos’ market value remains tied to CEO Rob Lee’s leadership and vision.

Peterson sees Accenture’s motive as building SaaS revenue and using acquired cybersecurity assets to accelerate organic growth, with Dragos’ OT threat-intelligence and incident-response data as another major potential asset. Still, he warns that Accenture as a sales channel could become a burden for Dragos if it consumes too much time without delivering proportionate sales. The best outcome would be large recurring-revenue deals through Accenture’s high-level enterprise relationships, while the worst would be a slow, distracting partnership that produces little revenue.

Source: Dale Peterson – ICS Security Catalyst

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