LevelBlue Agrees to Acquire Aon's Cybersecurity & IP Litigation Consulting Groups
Article content
− The Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property Litigation consulting solutions, Stroz Friedberg and Elysium Digital, bolster and expand LevelBlue's Global Cyber Risk and Incident Response Capabilities − Aon will continue to deliver leading cyber brokerage capabilities through the firm's Cyber Solutions group, CyQu platform and Cyber Risk Analyzer to serve clients' growing cyber broking needs DALLAS & DUBLIN — LevelBlue, a global leader in cloud-based, AI-driven managed security services, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Aon's Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property (IP) Litigation consulting groups, which include recognized cybersecurity firm Stroz Friedberg, and Elysium Digital, which is renowned for technology-related IP litigation matters. This acquisition represents a significant step in LevelBlue's growth strategy by adding deep cyber and high-tech IP litigation consulting expertise and world-class incident response capabilities to its expanding global portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed and the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions.
Article content
With this acquisition, LevelBlue gains a globally recognized cyber and IP litigation consulting platform that includes a team of approximately 300 technology professionals with strong relationships across Fortune 500 enterprises, 80 percent of the Am Law 100 and a majority of Top 20 law firms in the UK. The integration of consulting solutions complements LevelBlue's 24/7 managed detection and response services, creating a comprehensive cybersecurity risk management offering that addresses both digital risk protection and incident response, positioning LevelBlue to become the largest independent pureplay Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) globally.
Article content
'Cyber resilience is crucial for organizations of all sizes,' said Robert McCullen, Chairman and CEO of LevelBlue. 'By combining LevelBlue's exceptional cloud-based, AI-driven managed detection and response platform with Stroz Friedberg's proactive cyber consulting and advanced digital forensic and incident response capabilities, we're introducing the industry's most comprehensive unified cybersecurity services platform. This platform will not only strengthen clients' defenses preemptively, but also empower them with deeper insights and faster incident resolution. Together, we're helping organizations stay ahead of emerging threats and recover with greater speed and confidence.'
Article content
'We are thrilled to join forces with LevelBlue,' said David Yaches, CEO of Cyber Solutions Security Consulting at Aon. 'Our teams are aligned in mission and values, and this acquisition will allow us to serve clients with an expanded suite of cyber solutions and deeper technical expertise.'
Article content
Aon's Cybersecurity consulting group is also recognized as a clear leader in the 2024 Forrester Wave™ for Cybersecurity Incident Response Services by providing organizations with a comprehensive range of cyber resilience services designed to help them prepare for, withstand and recover from cyber incidents. Its cybersecurity risk management portfolio covers adversary simulation, penetration testing, incident response planning, real-time breach response, and digital forensics. With deep technical expertise and proven methodologies, Aon's Cybersecurity and IP Litigation consulting groups assist clients in strengthening their operational readiness, protecting their critical digital assets, and minimizing the impact of cyber events and accelerating recovery times.
Article content
'The incredible cybersecurity readiness and response capabilities of Aon's Cybersecurity consulting group, including the esteemed heritage of the Stroz Friedberg legacy, brings highly valued expertise to LevelBlue,' said Mike Troiano, LevelBlue Board Member and Head of AT&T Business Products. 'We expect this acquisition to significantly enhance the strategic cybersecurity services delivered globally by LevelBlue to AT&T's government and enterprise customers.'
Article content
As part of this transaction, Aon and LevelBlue will also establish a strategic relationship to collaboratively offer their respective services to clients in a holistic manner. This acquisition underscores LevelBlue's commitment to simplifying cybersecurity through award-winning managed services, strategic consulting, real-time threat intelligence and industry-renowned research, seamlessly integrated with its global operations and operational expertise to deliver solutions that help organizations of all sizes achieve their unique cybersecurity outcomes.
Article content
'Cyber remains a top risk category for our clients,' said Christian Hoffman, Global Specialty & Financial Products Leader at Aon. 'Aon will continue to deliver leading cyber brokerage capabilities through our Cyber Solutions group, CyQu platform and Cyber Risk Analyzer to serve our clients growing cyber broking needs.'
Article content
According to Christina Richmond, Principal Analyst at Richmond Advisory Group, 'This is a highly strategic acquisition for the cybersecurity services market. LevelBlue will strengthen its position at the intersection of managed security and cyber consulting services. By acquiring leading cybersecurity and IP litigation consulting capabilities, the combined organization is now better positioned to proactively enhance organizational resilience. The strategic relationship with Aon bolsters LevelBlue's posture with cyber insurers and adds highly complementary risk analysis and advisory services.'
Article content
Santander is serving as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal advisor to LevelBlue. Lazard is serving as financial advisor and Latham & Watkins LLP is serving as legal advisor to Aon.
Article content
About LevelBlue
Article content
We simplify cybersecurity through award-winning managed services, experienced strategic consulting, threat intelligence, and renowned research. Our team is a seamless extension of yours, providing transparency and visibility into security posture and continuously working to strengthen it.
Article content
We harness security data from numerous sources and enrich it with artificial intelligence to deliver real-time threat intelligence; this enables more accurate and precise decision making. With a large, always-on global presence, LevelBlue sets the standard for cybersecurity today and tomorrow. We easily and effectively manage risk, so you can focus on your business.
Article content
About Aon
Article content
Aon plc
Article content
(NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions for the better — to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Through actionable analytic insight, globally integrated Risk Capital and Human Capital expertise, and locally relevant solutions, our colleagues provide clients in over 120 countries with the clarity and confidence to make better risk and people decisions that protect and grow their businesses.
Article content
Article content
Article content
Article content
Article content
Contacts
Article content
Media Contact: LevelBlue Media Contact
Jessica Bettencourt
Inkhouse for LevelBlue
levelblue@inkhouse.com
(774) 451-5142
Article content
Aon Media Contact
Article content
Article content
Will Dunn
Article content
Article content
Article content
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Should You Buy Nvidia? These Chip Stocks Are Soaring as AI Demand Remains Hot.
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) continues to dominate the lion's share of the chips going into data centers for artificial intelligence (AI). The company just reported another monster quarter of growth, and the stock is closing in on new all-time highs. There's still a case for buying Nvidia stock, but investors shouldn't put all their chips in one basket (no pun intended). Nvidia is not capturing all the demand for AI semiconductors. Hyperscalers like Alphabet 's Google and Amazon are designing custom chips for specific AI workloads in their cloud services, and this is creating tremendous growth for other leading semiconductor companies. Shares of Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) recently were up 73% and 29%, respectively -- both outperforming Nvidia's 18% return over the last year. These chip stocks can broaden your exposure to the growing demand for AI chips across the data center market. 1. Broadcom Broadcom is a top supplier of custom AI accelerators (XPUs) and networking solutions for data centers and other markets. Its networking business supplies components that help move data at high speeds, which is vital as hyperscalers shift to more advanced AI workloads. Broadcom has reported five consecutive quarters of 20% or more revenue growth. Specifically, AI-related revenue jumped 46% year over year in the most recent quarter. Broadcom is turning this growth into strong profits, with free cash flow reaching $6.4 billion last quarter, representing a high 43% margin on revenue. AI networking revenue, including Broadcom's Ethernet networking products, grew 170% year over year, representing nearly half of its total revenue from AI. This incredible growth in networking signals a massive ramp in computing power to create the next wave of AI applications and services. Broadcom is also supplying XPUs, which are more cost-efficient for specific workloads than Nvidia's general-purpose chips. Broadcom sees at least three customers deploying 1 million custom AI-accelerated clusters by 2027, and it reported on the last earnings call that these large hyperscalers are "unwavering" in their plans to continue investing in the near term. The long-term outlook for custom chip demand should support shareholder returns over the next several years. In fact, management expects custom XPU demand to accelerate through 2026. The stock isn't cheap, trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 38, but the opportunity could justify the premium. 2. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (also known as TSMC) plays a vital role in the global supply chain for the chip industry. It's the largest chip foundry, with more than 65% market share, according to Counterpoint. It makes chips for several companies, including Nvidia, Broadcom, Advanced Micro Devices, and Apple, as well as hyperscalers. The stock is surging to new highs following a monster quarter, during which revenue in U.S. dollars grew 35% year over year. This strong growth was despite weak smartphone revenue in the quarter, representing over a quarter of the company's revenue, due to seasonal demand trends. TSMC has spent decades investing in cutting-edge chip-making technology to meet customer needs for the world's most advanced chips. Its competitive advantage is based on superior manufacturing capabilities and massive chip-making capacity, enabling it to make more than 16 million 12-inch equivalent wafers annually. These advantages enabled TSMC to earn a sky-high profit margin of 41% on a trailing-12-month basis. TSMC is planning to double its chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) capacity in 2025, indicating growing support for the demand that Nvidia and other customers are experiencing. TSMC recently announced a substantial investment of $165 billion to launch new manufacturing facilities in the U.S., in addition to expansion plans in other geographies. AI accelerator revenue tripled in 2024, and management expects it to double in 2025. Through 2029, the company expects demand for AI chips to grow at an annualized rate topping 40%. Taiwan Semiconductor shares may be the best value among chip stocks right now. The stock trades at just 23 times 2025 earnings estimates, despite analysts expecting 21% annualized earnings growth. While earnings multiples above 20 are historically expensive for chip stocks, these companies are experiencing a once-in-a-generation growth spurt that will likely deliver excellent returns to investors through the end of the decade. Should you invest $1,000 in Broadcom right now? Before you buy stock in Broadcom, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Broadcom wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $655,255!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $888,780!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is999% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to174%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Ballard has positions in Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
2 Top Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy in June
Cybersecurity is one industry that doesn't take a break. Hackers become more dangerous every year, so ensuring that a company has a top-notch cybersecurity protection plan is critical. This makes it an excellent industry to invest in, as it's practically recession-proof. Most companies will find many other places to cut expenses before they trim their cybersecurity budgets. The industry is large, and there are multiple facets to a rock-solid cybersecurity plan, which is why many companies utilize services from multiple vendors. As a result, there are multiple great cybersecurity companies to invest in. Two that I think are solid buys right now are SentinelOne (NYSE: S) and Okta (NASDAQ: OKTA). 1. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers AI-first endpoint protection software. Endpoints are all the devices that can access a company's network, like smartphones or laptops. If a bad actor can access a network through one of these devices, they can have free rein over the company's data, which could be a disaster. SentinelOne is just one competitor among many in the endpoint protection space, but its most notable peer is CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD). I've been a CrowdStrike bull for a long time, but given how expensive the stock has become, it's just not a buy today. Shares of SentinelOne, which offers a similar product, are much more reasonably priced, and the company is achieving strong growth. The best metric to use when evaluating both companies is the price-to-sales (P/S) ratio, as neither is reliably profitable yet. S PS Ratio data by YCharts. At 6.7 times sales, SentinelOne is cheap for a software stock, as most software companies trade between 10 and 20 times sales. CrowdStrike is at the high end of that range; however, it's not growing as fast as SentinelOne. Both companies' fiscal 2026 first quarters ended on April 30. During that quarter, CrowdStrike's revenue grew 20% year over year to $1.1 billion and its annual recurring revenue (ARR) rose 22% to $4.44 billion. SentinelOne's revenue rose 23% to $229 million, while its ARR increased by 24% to $948 million. The differences in valuation between these two largely come down to two factors. First, CrowdStrike is a much larger business and has already captured a significant chunk of the cybersecurity market. Second, CrowdStrike appears close to achieving consistent profitability. SentinelOne is light years away from doing so. However, SentinelOne has been more focused on growing its top line. If management flips the switch and focuses on profitability instead, it could close the red ink gap. I think the stock price is cheap enough and the business is strong enough that SenitelOne could be a solid buy here. Just don't expect it to turn profitable anytime soon. 2. Okta Okta plays in a completely different cybersecurity realm: It's an identity and access management specialist that ensures that a system's users are legitimate, and that each one can only access the information and apps they are supposed to be able to. For example, if a client didn't have robust enough endpoint protection or a bad actor somehow got through that layer of security using stolen credentials, they would only gain access to the limited parts of the system that the user was supposed to be able to access. Furthermore, Okta also monitors for unusual activity and can easily detect when someone is acting suspiciously. Okta is a key IT component in large organizations and a smart cybersecurity investment. Its P/S ratio of 6.7 is quite cheap, too. However, it's not growing nearly as fast as SentinelOne: Okta's revenue was up just 12% year over year in Q1. But its remaining performance obligation (similar to ARR) rose by an outstanding 21%. One thing that sets Okta apart is its solid profitability. In the past three years, it has climbed the ladder from deep unprofitability (similar to where SentinelOne's margins are) to producing positive net income. OKTA Profit Margin data by YCharts. Okta still has plenty of potential to produce even stronger margins -- software companies can easily reach 20% to 30% profit margins. If it does, the stock could be a monster winner thanks to its low current valuation. Should you invest $1,000 in SentinelOne right now? Before you buy stock in SentinelOne, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and SentinelOne wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $655,255!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $888,780!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is999% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to174%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
KOORUI Launches 34-Inch Curved Monitor 34E6UC Globally, Empowering Hybrid Work and Immersive Entertainment
NEW YORK, June 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Monitor brand KOORUI proudly presents the 34E6UC, a 34-inch ultra-wide curved display designed to elevate both productivity and entertainment. A 34-inch ultra-wide WQHD curved monitor designed to meet the growing demand for hybrid work tools and immersive digital experiences. *KOORUI 34E6UC Launches 34" 180Hz Curved Display to Power Hybrid Work and Home Entertainment As remote work and home entertainment become popular trends, consumers are seeking display solutions that support seamless multitasking, vivid visuals, and ergonomic comfort. According to IDC, demand for ultra-wide monitors has grown over 15% year-over-year, driven by professionals, gamers, and digital creators. KOORUI 34E6UC meets the rising demand for immersive, high-performance displays with a 3440×1440 WQHD resolution that delivers razor-sharp detail and enhanced workspace. Its 1000R curved screen wraps around the viewer's field of vision, creating a deeply immersive experience—perfect for cinematic entertainment and focused multitasking. The 180Hz refresh rate ensures ultra-smooth visuals, especially in fast-paced games where every frame counts, while the 1ms MPRT minimizes motion blur for sharp, responsive action. HDR400 certification further enhances image quality with richer contrast, deeper blacks, and more vibrant colors—ideal for both content creation and media consumption. Designed with versatility in mind, the monitor covers 90% of the DCI-P3 and 125% of the sRGB color gamuts, offering professional-grade color accuracy for designers, video editors, and digital artists. Its ergonomic stand supports height, tilt, and swivel adjustments, allowing users to maintain optimal posture and comfort during long hours of work or play. '34E6UC was built to bridge productivity and entertainment in one expansive screen,' said by KOORUI Brand Manager Mr. Hunter. 'It's designed to support everything from professional workflows to immersive gameplay.' The 34E6UC is now available on Amazon US, and is featured as a key pick for Prime Day 2025, offering consumers access to premium specs at highly competitive value. About KOORUI Powered by HKC 's semiconductor display expertise, KOORUI blends innovative panel manufacturing with human-centered product design. Its monitor lineup empowers creators, gamers, and professionals around the globe with reliable, high-performance visual solutions. Press Contact:
