New Delhi, May 20 (IANS): Cyber security company CyberArk on Monday announced it is acquiring Venafi, a leader in machine identity management, from software-focused investor Thoma Bravo, for $1.54 billion in a cash and stock deal.

The acquisition will help CyberArk establish a unified platform for end-to-end machine identity security at the enterprise scale.

Venafi’s certificate lifecycle management, private Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), IoT identity management and cryptographic code signing, along with CyberArk’s secrets management capabilities, will enable organisations to protect against misuse and compromise of machine identities, the company said in a statement.

"By combining forces with Venafi, we are expanding our abilities to secure machine identities in a cloud-first, GenAI, post-quantum world," said Matt Cohen, Chief Executive Officer, CyberArk.

In the digital era, ongoing cloud migration has led to an exponential increase in the number of machine identities, such as workloads, code, applications, IoT devices and containers. These machine identities need to be discovered, managed, secured and automated to keep their connections and communications safe.

Chip Virnig, a Partner at Thoma Bravo, said that Venafi has accelerated SaaS growth, expanded margins, and successfully created a best-in-class SaaS offering, setting the stage for continued innovation.

"We believe CyberArk is a great partner for Venafi and that the scaled end-to-end machine identity security platform created by this strategic combination will deliver significant value to shareholders," he added.

Venafi is expected to add nearly $150 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).