Dell Technologies is exploring the potential sale of its RSA Security business unit at roughly a $1 billion valuation including debt, Bloomberg reports. Dell inherited RSA via the EMC acquisition of 2016. EMC acquired RSA for $2.1 billion in 2006.
Rumors about Dell potentially selling RSA have surfaced multiple times over the past few years. RSA is well-known for its token-based security technology, but the business faces intense competition from fast-growing identity and access management (IAM) cloud and software providers such as Okta and Ping Identity, Bloomberg notes.
RSA is also well-known for its massive conferences -- which attract thousands of security professionals and industry partners.
There's no guarantee that Dell will actually sell RSA, the Bloomberg report states. But we'll be listening for potential clues from Dell when the company announces its latest quarterly financial results later today on November 26, 2019 (check back for potential updates to to this blog).
Neither Dell or RSA commented for the Bloomberg report.
Dell Security Strategy: Buy, Sell or Hold?
Dell also owns Secureworks, a perennial Top 200 MSSP that's extending from traditional managed security services to more of a software-defined era led by threat detection and management services. Secureworks, which recently named NCR veteran Maureen Perrelli as chief channel officer, has also been the subject of buyout rumors from time to time.
Meanwhile, Dell's VMware business now owns Carbon Black -- an endpoint protection and cybersecurity company that works closely with MSSPs. Dell has been connecting the dots between Secureworks, VMware and Carbon Black as part of its own enterprise security strategy.
