PartnerOne Buys NetWitness As RSA Security Divorce Continues

The private equity firms that bought RSA sold another business of the former cybersecurity powerhouse, selling threat detection, investigation and response vendor NetWitness to PartnerOne.

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The Riverside, a California-based acquirer of enterprise software companies, said it’ll help Boston-area NetWitness improve its technology, increase its capabilities and solidify its position as a market leader. The acquisition was announced just 12 days after Ken Naumann left the CEO post at NetWitness to lead security analytics firm Devo. Under PartnerOne, NetWitness will operate as an independent company.

“NetWitness is very excited to be a part of PartnerOne’s successful portfolio of enterprise software companies,” NetWitness Executive Vice President Julie Burgoyne said in a statement. “We know that PartnerOne’s expertise and financial strength will help us to innovate, invest in our technology, and deliver industry-leading service to our large enterprise customer base.”

Burgoyne is NetWitness’ highest-ranking leader since the departure of Naumann. She joined NetWitness in 2009 and has overseen the company’s customer service, technical support and value-added services since 2023. The sale will make NetWitness an independent company after nearly 14 years under the RSA umbrella.

NetWitness was conceived in 1997 as an intelligence agency research project managed by CTX Corp., and was spun out from CTX and run independently for many years by the late Amit Yoran, who went on to take vulnerability management vendor Tenable public. Naumann became NetWitness’ CEO in August 2022 as RSA’s business units became increasingly autonomous. The company employs 236 people (see: RSA CEO Rohit Ghai on Authenticating Users to Mobile Devices).

STG, Clearlake Sell Off RSA Business Units For Cash Infusion

During NetWitness’ time under RSA, the company bought endpoint monitoring vendor Silicium Security in 2012 and user and entity behavior analysis vendor Fortscale in 2018. RSA paired NetWitness with its internal SIEM capability in 2011, added security orchestration, automation and response capabilities in 2018, and debuted a pure cloud SaaS analytics component in 2021.

The deal makes NetWitness the fourth divestiture since private equity firm Symphony Technology Group, or STG, acquired RSA Security from Dell Technologies in September 2020 for $2.1 billion. In June 2021, STG spun out RSA’s fraud and risk intelligence unit as a standalone company called Outseer. Two months later, Clearlake Capital became an equal partner in RSA alongside STG following a strategic equity investment.

In March 2022, Clearlake and STG sold a majority position in the RSA Conference to private equity firm Crosspoint Capital while retaining a minority stake. Thirteen months later, Clearlake and STG agreed to sell RSA’s Archer integrated risk management unit to international private equity firm Cinven. Exiting NetWitness means STG and Clearlake will only own RSA’s SecureID identity and access management tool.

PartnerOne has a limited footprint in the cybersecurity arena, having purchased key assets from XDR and CNAPP vendor Fidelis in August 2023. Just 10 days after that deal was announced, Fidelis filed a $100 million lawsuit against PartnerOne, accusing the firm of manipulating negotiations to purchase Fidelis’ assets for 25 cents on the dollar during foreclosure. The Fidelis-PartnerOne case remains open.

NetWitness’ technology has faded in analyst evaluations in recent years. Gartner recognized NetWitness as a leader in SIEM as recently as 2020, but fell all the way to niche player by the 2024 Magic Quadrant. Gartner in 2023 praised NetWitness for its vendor portfolio, global presence and simple deployments, but criticized the company for limited SaaS adoption, UEBA customization and out-of-the-box reporting.