SoftBank will retain a minority stake in the mobile security solutions provider
Zimperium is a mobile security solutions provider. (Credit: Biljana Jovanovic from Pixabay)
Liberty Strategic Capital has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Zimperium, a US-based mobile security company, for a sum of around $525m.
Based in Washington, D.C., Liberty Strategic Capital is a private equity firm established and led by Steven T. Mnuchin, a former US Secretary of the Treasury. After the closing of the deal, Mnuchin will be the chairman of Zimperium’s board of directors.
Japan-based SoftBank, which has been an investor in the mobile security company since 2017, will retain a minority stake.
Zimperium said that the investment from Liberty Strategic Capital will help it continue expediting its growth, organically as well as through strategic acquisitions.
Mnuchin said: “Liberty Strategic Capital is investing in Zimperium because they’ve shown that they can lead the way in this multibillion-dollar market. Employees are using their own devices, driving enterprises to increasingly recognise the need for top-of-the-line cybersecurity designed for the mobile environment.
“As the use of mobile devices and the cyber threats against them proliferate, we believe Zimperium has positioned itself as the leader in securing mobile endpoints and applications.”
Headquartered in Dallas, Zimperium has developed a mobile security platform that is specifically built for enterprise environments.
Zimperium’s solution is said to offer on-device mobile threat defense to protect growing and changing mobile environments by using machine learning-based protection and a single platform that secures all the things from applications to endpoints.
Last December, the company partnered with LA Metro and the City of Los Angeles to offer a free mobile security application called LA Secure to help residents stay safe on mobile devices.
Zimperium CEO Shridhar Mittal said: “There’s no question that the world is going mobile. And as that happens, modern operating systems like Android and iOS are playing a more prominent role powering the devices people use in their personal and professional lives.
“But what many people don’t realise is that protecting these devices is much different from protecting traditional endpoints and requires a new approach.”
The deal, which is contingent on regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, is expected to be wrapped up in Q2 2022.