The Tesserent Ltd (ASX: TNT) share price has soared more than 42% higher today, on the back of an announcement regarding a strategic acquisition of Seer's security businesses in Melbourne and Canberra.
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What does Tesserent do?
Tesserent provides enterprise-grade cyber security and networking solutions targeted at the mid-market. Its customer base spans Australia, the United Kingdom and Korea. The company's flagship offering is its 'Cyber 360' strategy which includes solutions such as identification, protection and 24/7 monitoring to combat the growing risk of cyber security threats.
Tesserent's acquisition today follows a series of previous cyber security acquisitions for the company. These include Pure Security, Rivium and North. Tesserent is now Australia's largest ASX listed dedicated cyber security firm.
Details of Seer acquisition
Tesserent announced the strategic acquisition of Seer's security businesses today by the signing of a binding share purchase agreement. Seer's security businesses are based in Melbourne and Canberra. The acquisition was purchased with a combination of $5 million of cash and existing Tesserent shares.
Seer reported over $7.6 million in revenue and $2.2 million of sustainable earnings during FY 2020. In addition, Seer has strong revenue and earnings growth anticipated for FY 2021.
The acquisition strengthens Tesserent's security services and delivery capabilities to a number of Australian Federal Government departments and agencies. These include both Defence and Law Enforcement. In particular, it will assist in the delivery of Assurance and Governance, as well as Risk and Compliance (GRC) services. The acquisition will also enhance Tesserent's software development capabilities.
On the back of this most recent acquisition, Tesserent has now evolved to become Canberra's largest pure cyber security provider.
Seer's Managing Director, Scott Ceely, commented; "there is a significant opportunity for Australian-based cyber firms to work with all levels of Australian government to improve their security posture."
Julian Challingsworth, Tesserent's Co-CEO commented; "current market conditions continue to present tremendous consolidation opportunities in the short to medium term, and we fully expect to take advantage of this with additional acquisitions currently under consideration".
Surge in Tesserent share price this week
The strong rise in the Tesserent share price today follows a surge in its share price earlier this week. This came after the company released a very positive trading update on Monday. Tesserent announced that it had successfully completed its financial objectives for the year and secured a debt facility. At the time of writing, the Tesserent share price is trading at 18.5 cents.
