VMware Carbon Black

This article is about the cybersecurity company. For the chemical compound, see carbon black.

VMware Carbon Black (formerly Bit9, Bit9 + Carbon Black, and Carbon Black) is a cybersecurity company based in Waltham, Massachusetts.^[1] The company develops cloud-native endpoint security software that is designed to detect malicious behavior and to help prevent malicious files from attacking an organization.^[2] The company leverages technology known as the Predictive Security Cloud (PSC), a big data and analytics cloud platform that analyzes customers’ unfiltered data for threats.^[3]

VMware Carbon Black

Formerly	Bit9 Bit9 + Carbon Black Carbon Black
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Endpoint security
Founded	2002; 23 years ago (2002) (as Bit9)
Founders	Todd Brennan Allen Hillery John Hanratty
Headquarters	Waltham, Massachusetts , U.S.
Key people	Patrick Morley, CEO
Products	Security software
Number of employees	1000+ (2019)
Parent	VMware
Website	carbonblack.com

The company has approximately 100 partners.^[4] It has over 5,600 customers including approximately one-third of the Fortune 100.^[5]

In October 2019, the company was acquired by VMware.^[6][7][8]

History

Carbon Black was founded as Bit9 in 2002 by Todd Brennan, Allen Hillery, and John Hanratty.^[9][10] The company's first CEO was George Kassabgi.^[11] In 2007, Patrick Morley, the former chief operating officer of Corel, took over as CEO.^[12]

In 2013, the company's network was broken into by malicious actors who copied a private signing key for a certificate and used it to sign malware.^[13]

In February 2014, Bit9 acquired start-up security firm Carbon Black.^[14][15] At the time of the acquisition, the company also raised $38.25 million in Series E funding, bringing Bit9’s total venture capital raised to approximately $120 million.^[16] The company acquired Objective Logistics in June 2015.^[17] In August 2015, the company announced that it had acquired data analytics firm Visitrend and would open a technology development center in downtown Boston.^[18] A month later, the company announced it would partner with SecureWorks, Ernst & Young, Kroll, Trustwave, and Rapid7 to provide managed security and incident response services.^[19][20]

The company changed its name to Carbon Black on February 1, 2016, after being known as "Bit9 + Carbon Black" for approximately two years.^[21]

In July 2016, Carbon Black announced it had acquired next-generation antivirus software provider Confer for an undisclosed sum. Prior to the deal, Confer had raised $25 million in venture funding and had more than 50 employees. According to The Wall Street Journal, the deal was valued at $100 million.^[22]

On May 4, 2018, the company joined public markets, listing as "CBLK" on the Nasdaq exchange. As part of its initial public offering (IPO), Carbon Black raised approximately $152 million at a valuation of $1.25 billion.^[23] Prior to its IPO, the firm had raised $190M from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Highland Capital, Sequoia, Accomplice, and Blackstone.^[24]

In October 2019, the company was acquired by VMware for $2.1 billion.^[6][7]