Irish company AdaptiveMobile Security snapped up in €45m deal

16 Jul 2021

Image: © Rymden/Stock.adobe.com

The mobile network security company will continue to operate with its current brand under its new parent company Enea.

Swedish telecoms and cybersecurity company Enea has acquired Irish tech company AdaptiveMobile Security for €45m on a cash and debt-free basis.

Founded in 2006, AdaptiveMobile Security specialises in mobile network security and its products and services have been deployed by more than 80 mobile operators globally.

The company has previously been responsible for uncovering mobile hacks including fake Amazon vouchers via mobile messages and a 2016 hack into Apple users’ iCloud accounts.

AdaptiveMobile Security counts some of the world’s largest carriers, governments and regulators as customers.

The company is headquartered in Dublin with offices in North America, Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region.

It employs 135 people across its offices and recorded revenues of €15.5m in 2020.

Enea estimates that AdaptiveMobile Security will have sales of approximately €17m for the full year 2021.

The Stockholm-headquartered company focuses on cloud-native, 5G-ready products for data management, mobile video traffic optimisation, edge virtualisation and traffic intelligence.

‘It is essential to protect mobile networks against an ever-increasing threat landscape’
– BRIAN COLLINS

AdaptiveMobile Security will continue to operate under its current brand as a new business unit within Enea and will be headed by its current CEO, Brian Collins.

“We are delighted to become part of the Enea family, a well-respected leader in the telecommunications and security markets,” said Collins.

“We believe it is essential to protect mobile networks against an ever-increasing threat landscape to maintain the integrity of national and international communications. Together with Enea, we can now serve a wider range of customers and offer an unrivalled combination of networking and security expertise.”

Enea’s president and CEO, Jan Häglund, said the acquisition significantly strengthens his company’s cybersecurity portfolio.

“As the global leader in mobile network security, AdaptiveMobile Security expands our market presence and broadens our offering to operators, creating interesting opportunities in areas such as 5G security,” he said.

With the growing threat of cyberattacks, focusing on security at all levels, including within mobile networks, has never been more important.

Last year, AdaptiveMobile Security’s Silke Holtmanns told Siliconrepublic.com about her work as the company’s head of 5G security research.

“In my role, I design countermeasures based on analysis of attacks on core mobile phone networks or programme these attacks in labs to investigate how attackers can potentially breach networks,” she said.

“These attackers can extract data such as location of subscribers, intercept calls and data, use extracted information for fraud and launch denial of service attacks from the mobile core network. Defending mobile network subscribers and figuring out how to stop the attackers is my mission.”

Jenny Darmody is the editor of Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com