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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Carbon Black acquired Confer Technologies to add next-generation antivirus (NGAV) to its endpoint-security portfolio, then said it would rename Confer’s software Cb Defense. The company announced the deal on July 19, 2016, although its later SEC filing says the acquisition closed on June 3, 2016.
What happened—and when
Carbon Black described Confer as an NGAV company in its July 19, 2016 announcement. The announcement made the deal public and said Confer’s software would be renamed Cb Defense. Carbon Black’s 2018 Form 10-K gives the transaction’s closing date as June 3, 2016, when Carbon Black acquired all outstanding Confer shares.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| June 3, 2016 | Carbon Black acquired 100% of Confer Technologies’ outstanding shares. | Carbon Black 2018 Form 10-K |
| July 19, 2016 | Carbon Black publicly announced the acquisition and the Cb Defense name. | Carbon Black announcement |
| 2018 | Carbon Black described Confer’s technology and the deal’s role in its NGAV offering in SEC disclosures. | Carbon Black 2018 Form 10-K; Carbon Black 2018 filing |
Why Carbon Black said it bought Confer
Carbon Black presented the acquisition as a way to broaden its endpoint-security platform. Its existing offerings included application control, incident response, and threat hunting; Confer added NGAV software. The company’s stated goal was to give customers a broader set of endpoint-security capabilities through one platform.
CEO Patrick Morley said, “With the acquisition of Confer, organizations of every size can now address their endpoint-security requirements through a single platform,” according to the announcement. That was the company’s strategic rationale, not an independently established outcome for customers.
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What Cb Defense was meant to add
Carbon Black described Cb Defense as combining behavioral prevention with detection and response. Its later SEC disclosures characterized Confer’s contribution as cloud-based, multi-tenant processing and streaming detection and prevention capabilities, and linked the acquisition to establishing Carbon Black’s NGAV offering.
Those descriptions explain the strategic fit: Confer’s NGAV technology was positioned alongside Carbon Black’s existing endpoint products rather than as an unrelated line of business. They are vendor and corporate disclosures, not independent comparative tests demonstrating effectiveness against other products.
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Product claims in the announcement
Carbon Black’s 2016 announcement said Cb Defense used a lightweight sensor that installed in less than a minute and consumed less than one percent of CPU, disk, and network resources. These were company-reported specifications at the time, not independently verified measurements. Confer co-founder and CEO Mark Quinlivan called the product “a sophisticated, lightweight, yet simple solution” with prevention, detection, and incident-response capabilities; that too was the company’s own characterization.
What the deal terms disclose
The 2016 announcement said the terms were not disclosed. Carbon Black’s 2018 Form 10-K later reported that consideration included 13,026,145 shares of Series F preferred stock and 2,652,957 common shares issued to former Confer stockholders, alongside other acquisition-accounting items. Those share figures are transaction-accounting disclosures; they do not establish a cash purchase price, and Carbon Black did not give a public headline price in the announcement.
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What this history does not establish
The announcement and SEC filings document the acquisition, Carbon Black’s stated strategy, and its descriptions of Confer’s technology. They do not establish Cb Defense’s present-day availability, ownership, support status, or performance. This is a historical account of the 2016 acquisition and its subsequent corporate description, not a current product recommendation.
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