Qualys Buys Software Assets Of Cloud Security Startup Adya

Qualys has purchased the software assets of Adya to help businesses of all sizes consolidate administration of their SaaS applications in a single console.

The Foster City, Calif. cloud security vendor said its acquisition of San Francisco-based cloud security startup Adya will also help Qualys manage license costs across SaaS applications, set and enforce security policies in a single place, and audit all activity using a single tool. Qualys said the deal will extend the power of its cloud platform into commercial SaaS applications.

Adya stands out from the pack with its ability to bring SaaS administration, licensing, security and compliance into a single-pane view, according to Qualys CEO Philippe Courtot. This makes it possible for Adya to deliver comprehensive reports for auditors and stakeholders, Courtot said.

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"Enabling security and compliance audits of SaaS applications is becoming critically important as enterprises increasingly rely on cloud-focused software to accelerate their digital transformations," Courtot said in a statement.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company's stock fell $13.98 (14.5 percent) to $82.43 in after-hours trading Tuesday. Qualys also reported Tuesday that year-over-year revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 increased 17.9 percent to $74.2 million, in line with expectations. Meanwhile, earnings jumped 496.6 percent to $14.4 million, or $0.35 per share, crushing Seeking Alpha estimates of $0.18 per share.

Adya was founded in 2016 and employs 15 people, according to LinkedIn. Adya Co-Founder and CEO Deepak Balakrishna will join Qualys as chief technology officer, SaaS security, while Adya Co-Founder and CTO Amit Agarwal will join Qualys as VP engineering, SaaS security.

"Qualys is a pioneer that saw the market move to cloud-based subscription services over 15 years ago," Balakrishna said in a statement. "We are excited to be part of this great company, and to scale the effectiveness of cloud application management by integrating Adya's solutions into the Qualys Cloud Platform."

Qualys expects the full integration of Adya's offering into the Qualys Cloud Platform in the third quarter of this year, according to the company.

Adya's security and compliance capabilities provide central visibility into data exposure and dangerous apps for all SaaS applications, according to the company. The company also delivers a single console to administer all SaaS apps, limited access to apps based on a user's role in the organization and providing critical administrative functionality.

From a license management standpoint, Adya provides a single console to monitor usage of SaaS apps and manage costs by finding and re-allocating dormant licenses. And as far as auditing and reporting are concerned, Adya can deliver pre-built and custom reports for audit, compliance and other needs.

The Adya deal is Qualys' fourth transaction in the past 15 months. Qualys kicked things off in November 2017 with its plans to purchase the assets of NetWatcher to expand its reach into the real-time threat intelligence market and bolster its relationship with MSSPs.

Five months later, the company extended the power of its cloud-based security and compliance platform to millions of mobile and IoT devices with the purchase of vendor 1Mobility. And in October 2018, Qualys purchased Layered Insight to enhance its ability to lock-down workloads running inside containerized and serverless environments.

Qualys ended 2018 with annual revenue of $278.9 million, up 20.8 percent from sales of $230.8 million in 2017. The company has also increased its headcount by 20 percent over the past year, according to LinkedIn, going from 913 employees a year ago to 1,096 workers today.