Acquisition · Digital forensics software
Sun Corporation's Cellebrite buys US computer forensics firm BlackBag for about $35 million
- Buyer
- Sun Corporation (via Cellebrite) (Konan, Aichi)
- Target
- BlackBag Technologies, San Jose, California
- Value
- About ¥3.83B (about $35M)
- Status
- Agreed January 14, 2020; expected to close in late February 2020.
- Date
- 2020-01-14
Cellebrite, the Israeli digital forensics company then owned by Japan's Sun Corporation, agreed to buy all of BlackBag Technologies, a California maker of tools that pull and analyze evidence from computers. Sun put the price at about ¥3.83 billion. BlackBag, founded in 2001 with 57 staff, sells to police, government agencies and companies.
Why it matters
Cellebrite was strong in phones; BlackBag added computers, especially Macs. The wider tool set helped Cellebrite grow before its 2021 Nasdaq listing.
About BlackBag
BlackBag helps government agencies, police and companies pull and analyze data from computers after crimes or cyberattacks. It had sales of about ¥1.34 billion and an ordinary profit of about ¥57 million. Chief executive Ken Basore said its mission was to help investigators reveal the truth.
Sun and Cellebrite
Sun Corporation, a Japanese electronics company, bought Cellebrite in 2007. Cellebrite co-CEO Yossi Carmil said BlackBag let it offer a one-stop platform covering phones, computers, cloud data and call records.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
