By Doug Cameron
Raytheon Co. is betting it can leverage the cybersecurity skills
it honed for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies to sell to
banks and retailers, investing almost $1.7 billion to establish a
stand-alone business in an area where its defense peers have
struggled to make money.
The company on Monday said it would buy control of Websense Inc.
from private-equity firm Vista Partners LLC. Raytheon said Austin,
Texas-based Websense, which has 21,000 data-security clients, half
of them overseas, will form the core of a new cyber joint venture
with forecast sales of $500 million this year and margins of around
20%.
Raytheon Chief Executive Tom Kennedy said the threat of
cyberattacks such as the one suffered last year by Target Corp. is
increasing as cloud computing and mobile services make companies
more vulnerable to costly electronic intrusions by state-sponsored
hackers, terrorists, organized crime or insiders.
"CEOs are shaking in their boots," said the 59-year-old Mr.
Kennedy, who took the helm of the fourth-largest U.S. defense
contractor by sales in March of last year.
Raytheon is paying the equivalent of more than four to five
times Websense's annual sales, a pricey multiple for the defense
industry. The deal is the largest acquisition in a decade by one of
the nation's five prime contractors. Collectively those companies
have done dozens of deals aimed at parlaying their experience with
the Pentagon into commercial work. The results have been mixed.
Defense companies have found it tough to convert salespeople who
are used to dealing with the Defense Department to selling cyber
products to other business clients, while the Pentagon has been
reluctant to allow contractors to transfer technology to their
nonmilitary customers.
Raytheon executives said the Websense deal addressed both
issues. The firm has an experienced commercial sales staff, while
Raytheon has long-standing deals with the Pentagon to use some
intellectual property in the commercial sector.
Raytheon has made the defense industry's most concerted push
into cyber, with 14 acquisitions since 2007, including the $420
million purchase of Blackbird Technologies last November, which
added capabilities in the intelligence and special-operations
markets.
With dozens of commercial cybersecurity companies springing up
and attracting rich valuations, defense companies have found it
tough to gain traction. General Dynamics Corp. last week sold a
commercial cyber firm it acquired three years ago, and plans to
focus on government work. Boeing Co. made a similar move in
January, but Lockheed Martin Corp. is continuing to target
commercial cyber business.
Both the commercial and defense sectors will converge this week
at a big cybersecurity conference in San Francisco, Defense
Secretary Ash Carter is expected to outline the Pentagon's new
cyber strategy at a separate event on Thursday.
Raytheon's shares have has underperformed its peers during a
three-year run-up in defense stocks, partly because it devoted more
funds to deals and research than its counterparts, who have
delivered billions of dollars in buybacks and higher dividends.
Websense "would clearly take Raytheon well into the commercial
cybersecurity space, which we believe would involve significant
risk," said Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analysts in a recent
report on the sector.
Websense CEO John McCormack, who will head the new Raytheon
venture, said the focus of commercial cyber has shifted from
deterring threats to limiting their damage. "The days are gone when
you can prevent intrusion, " he said in an interview.
"It screams out automation and integration," added Mr.
McCormack, an 18-year veteran of the industry who says clienmts are
hamstrung by lack of trained staff and the cost and time spent
upgrading legacy systems.
He said Websense has outperformed a global commercial cyber
market, growing at around 8% a year, with a top 10 market position
in monitoring Web gateways and providing data-loss protection.
Raytheon, which is based in Waltham, Mass., predicted the joint
venture would deliver high-single-digit revenue growth next year
and mid-double-digit growth in 2017, and would be profitable from
day one. Raytheon will have an 80% stake in the new cyber venture,
with Vista Partners LLC holding 20%.
Raytheon is investing $965 million in cash, providing a $600
million loan and injecting $400 million of existing cyber assets
into the as-yet unnamed venture. The private-equity firm, which
took Websense private for $890 million in 2013, will also invest
$335 million in the venture.
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