Sysnet acquired Trustwave’s PCI compliance business for $80 million

Payment card industry (PCI) compliance helps with the security of credit card transactions, and Trustwave has covered a large part of it for a long time. In recent news, the company is handling their PCI business to Sysnet. Sysnet Global solutions paid $80 million to acquire the massive compliance business to free Trustwave’s hands for other projects and keep score in their basket.

Trustwave CEO Eric Harmon said, “It didn’t necessarily make sense for us to stay in the PCI business.” Also added, “This will allow us to invest more and focus more on the MDR and MSS assets from now on.” PCI is the standard by security organisations helping major card schemes to conduct business. According to CRN, this part of the business was Trustwave’s’ legacy part of business, and selling it came after much thought. At the moment, the company will focus more on managed detection and response (MDR) systems.

Sysnet added their compliance solution acquisition service up on their website, and they seem pretty prepared for it. In earlier news, we saw Trustwave teaming up with Avant to boost managed security sales for organizational partners. At that time, their service was to provide on-demand security solutions along with IT support. Based in Chicago, the security compliance company has a long reputation for SecureTrust and FLEX division services. After detaching a noticeable part of the company, their hands are free to experiment with other aspects of the business. Acquisitions are the easier way to get another side of the business. We can see a similar step by Accenture acquiring Symantec’s Cyber Security Service business from Broadcom to get into that sort of business. The deal was placed in April 2020 for $200 million.

Trustwave is not focusing on machine learning and artificial intelligence investments as they are expected to be a significant source of future revenue. This kind of adaptation of future technology is known for a speedy recovery from financial suffering and accurately placing business fundamentals. AI and ML have come a long way and provide various services. As data is generated in large numbers, utilizing them needs advanced tech.

Hermon talked about companies’ interest to enhance their data capabilities, fusion with security platforms by adding API integrations. Proceeds of the sale of SecureTrust will fund machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities, boosting the company’s compliance system a step ahead. Currently, Trustwave has almost 600 channel partners globally. Gary Abad, former Ivanti and LogRhythm channel leader is hired recently to serve the company as global channel chief. Harmon said they want to ‘continue working with their partners ‘to be more channel-friendly.’

Sysnet started promoting the compliance ‘tick’ in the box exercise for merchants, whether medium or small, for properly addressing security channels. Trustwave is directly trying to compete against tech giant IBM in the security and framework sector, which is not an easy deal to go with. Being one of the global tech leaders, IBM is known for innovation and aggressively competing against similar production houses. But Trustwave’s plan to achieve more on AI and ML is awe-inspiring. CRN meeting with CEO Harmon gave us a broader idea of company motive and challenges after selling PCI compliance business to Sysnet.

According to Eric, “The further that we can refine the automation and the tooling, the better it becomes”, and they are “doing a better job of picking up the patterns, enriching the patterns.” Innovation is the key to survival in the tech industry. Though it is a big deal for both companies going through the transition process, we barely saw hefty notices or reports published but expect some ideology later.