CrowdStrike Acquires XM Cyber Intellectual Property for $600 Million

The Israeli-German cybersecurity firm XM Cyber, co-founded by former Mossad director Tamir Pardo, is being sold for the second time in its history—this time to the American cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike. It should be emphasized that this is a sale of XM Cyber's intellectual property rather than the entire company.

Intellectual Property Sale and Restructuring

XM Cyber's intellectual property is being sold for 600 million dollars, five years after the company was acquired for 700 million dollars by Germany's Schwarz Group. To the best of knowledge, Pardo is no longer involved with the firm.

This transaction involves solely the acquisition of intellectual property, while customers and revenues will remain with XM Cyber under its German operations. The majority of employees will stay with the Schwarz Group, while a small portion will transition to CrowdStrike.

"XM Cyber is expected to undergo a restructuring process and workforce adjustments in line with upcoming tasks," company sources noted, implying layoffs.

At the same time, the company promises that all employees will benefit from the exit according to their stock options, estimated at tens of millions of dollars. Additionally, remaining employees will receive retention bonuses. Founders who remained with the company—CEO Noam Erez and CTO Boaz Gorodissky—will also stay with the German entity.

Market Valuation and CrowdStrike's Israeli Expansion

According to market estimates, XM Cyber's order backlog and contracts stand at 450 million dollars, with insiders valuing the business at approximately one billion dollars. This suggests the Schwarz Group sees a value increase of about 300 million dollars compared to the original acquisition five years ago.

The Schwarz Group—which operates major supermarket chains in Germany—originally acquired XM Cyber to combat cyber threats targeting organizational cloud and on-premises environments. The firm exposes hidden attack paths to critical infrastructure, enabling security teams to block them in real time.

XM Cyber was founded roughly a decade ago by Pardo, Erez, and Gorodissky under the name XM (meaning X-Mossad). Although this is an intellectual property acquisition, it marks one of CrowdStrike's most dramatic deals in Israel, netting them key personnel. To date, CrowdStrike has acquired six companies in Israel for hundreds of millions of dollars, including Flow Security, Adaptive Shield, Reposify, and Preempt, and is reportedly in talks to acquire another firm named Orion.