Thales, a multinational technology company in the aerospace, transportation, defense, and security markets, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the European cybersecurity companies, S21sec and Excellium from the venture capital firm Sonae Investment Management for an enterprise value of USD 125.3 million (EUR 120 million), which is nearly 2x its annual sales for 2021. The transaction is expected to be finalized in 2H 2022.

S21sec (founded in 2000) and Excellium (founded in 2012) are sister companies, operated under a single holding company, Maxive Cybersecurity. S21sec and Excellium provide cybersecurity consulting, integration, and managed services across Europe. These companies generated a combined sales of USD 62.2 million (EUR 59 million) in 2021 and currently have an employee headcount of 546.

The acquisition will accelerate Thales’ footprint in Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, and Belgium. It will also complement and strengthen Thales’ cybersecurity portfolio including threat detection and response, cybersecurity consulting, audit, and integration services. The companies will also provide Thales with extensive industrial expertise and a diversified customer base of industrial and critical infrastructure providers across the financial services, government, and public services sectors, which accounted for over 50% of its sales revenue in 2021.

Founded in 1893, Thales offers cybersecurity solutions including risk assessment, training and simulation, and threat detection and response to organizations in 50 countries. The company has a current global employee headcount of 81,000, and, in 2022, it plans to hire an additional 11,000 employees, which include 1,000 in cybersecurity, to further expand its presence in the global cybersecurity market. Thales has 75% of its employees at 9 sites across Spain and Portugal and 25% across Luxembourg and Belgium.