Mimecast bought Ataata to add employee cybersecurity awareness and training to its email-security and resilience offering. Mimecast announced the deal on July 10, 2018; its later SEC filing gives July 9 as the acquisition date and reports approximately $23.2 million in cash consideration, net of $1.9 million in cash acquired.
Why did Mimecast buy Ataata?
Mimecast said Ataata would help it address a human part of email risk: whether employees recognize and respond appropriately to threats. Its existing email-resilience capabilities focused on managing email threats; Ataata brought training content, employee risk scoring, and simulated attacks. The strategic aim was to pair protection with efforts to help staff identify threats. That was Mimecast’s stated rationale, not evidence that training alone prevents breaches.
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In the July 2018 announcement, Mimecast cited its research conducted with Vanson Bourne: 90 percent of surveyed organizations had seen phishing attacks increase over the previous year, while 11 percent said they continuously trained employees to spot attacks. Those are historical survey findings presented by Mimecast, not current statistics. Mimecast also quoted Gartner’s forecast that the security-awareness computer-based training market would exceed $1.1 billion by the end of 2020; that was a forecast made in 2018, not a current market-size figure.
Both companies’ leaders emphasized changing employee behavior. Mimecast CEO and founder Peter Bauer said, “Cybersecurity awareness training has traditionally been viewed as a check the box action for compliance purposes, boring videos with PhDs rambling about security or even less than effective gamification which just doesn’t work.” Ataata CEO and co-founder Michael Madon said, “Organizations need to understand that employees are their last line of defense” and “Cybersecurity training and awareness doesn’t need to be difficult or boring.” These were executive views and promotional statements, not independently measured findings.
How much did Mimecast pay for Ataata?
Mimecast’s fiscal 2019 Form 10-K reported approximately $23.2 million in cash consideration, net of $1.9 million in cash acquired. The company announced the acquisition on July 10, 2018, while the filing records July 9 as the acquisition date and says Mimecast acquired all of Ataata’s outstanding equity.
The deal announcement did not disclose financial terms. SecurityWeek likewise reported on July 10 that terms were undisclosed at publication. The later SEC filing supplied the amount, so the early reports and the subsequent figure reflect different disclosure dates.
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What did Ataata do?
Ataata provided a cybersecurity training and awareness platform. Mimecast described its approach as observing employee behavior, calculating cyber-risk metrics, and connecting employees with training relevant to their risk scores and areas for improvement. The announcement also highlighted risk scoring and simulated real-world attack scenarios.
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SecurityWeek’s contemporaneous account described Ataata as a continuous-training platform, reported that it was founded in 2016 by Madon, and said existing staff would remain Mimecast employees. The report said Madon would move to Boston to lead Mimecast Learning Labs.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What did the acquisition add to Mimecast’s security products?
In October 2018, Mimecast described Ataata as the foundation for Mimecast Awareness Training. The service offered training content, risk scoring, and simulated attack scenarios. Topics listed by Mimecast included ransomware, phishing, wire fraud, password hygiene, PCI compliance, HIPAA, and GDPR. This follow-up announcement confirmed the product direction Mimecast had described when it announced the acquisition; it does not establish the service’s current name, availability, packaging, or effectiveness.
In practical terms, the acquisition extended Mimecast’s stated approach from detecting and managing email threats toward also training employees to recognize them. Whether that approach improved security outcomes is not established by the deal announcement or launch description.
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