Matasano Security acquired for £8.4m ($13m) - Congrats tptacek

[tptacek]

If you thought I was insufferable before...

[rubyrescue]

Congrats, though we've not interacted much here, you feel like a neighbor... so it feels great to see... and i've learned a LOT from your posts, like never typing the letters, A, E, S in consecutive order, for starters. : )

[aortega]

Unlike most startups out there, I believe Matasano is a purely consulting business with no product, IOS app or social site, and it got bought anyway.

As the founder of a "cyber-startup" with no product and no social site, this is very encouraging :)

Congrats!

[larrys]

"If you thought I was insufferable before..."

First, congratulations. I did notice though a change in your comment tone from some time ago. (Unfortunately I can't recall exactly when and there is no easy way to draw up comments on HN from "x" days ago you have to go through page by page.) I'm wondering though if it coincides with this (or maybe another deal) going down. Meaning either the stress or elation of this or another potential transaction altered your writing.

[mindcrime]

If you thought I was insufferable before...

You are, but congrats nonetheless! :-)

[vld]

Congratulations! Will you still be directly involved?

[ta12121]

Especially when you're wrong :-)

[unreal37]

Congrats! That's great news. Btw, I feel you bring a lot of value to HN (and me) through your comments, so I hope that doesn't change.

[Sukotto]

Congratulations on the big win Thomas. Hope it just keeps getting better for you guys.

[jonknee]

So where are you eating your celebratory meal?

[Nrsolis]

Congrats man. Be sure to send the announcement URL to your old friends at Arbor.

[sown]

Neat.

Does this mean the nature of working there is going to be different? I've been through an acquisition before and everything changes afterwards.

[angersock]

"If you thought I was insufferable before..." :)

At any rate, congratulations and great work!

[rbanffy]

We can agree on something. Congratulations, nevertheless. I suspect you worked very hard for this and it seems well deserved.

[mhartl]

Bravo! Keep up the great work.

[comatose_kid]

Nicely done! Congrats!!

[_pius]

Congratulations Thomas!

[SatvikBeri]

High five and well-done! You and your team earned it :)

[citricsquid]

Congratulations, good luck with the new opportunities!

[scott_s]

Congrats, Thomas. I'm glad to you have you around.

[stox]

Congrats!! It has been a long time coming.

[brianlash]

Really fantastic news. Congrats!!

[bane]

Ha! Congrats anyways!

[casca]

This is an interesting purchase as Matasano is a services company that has some of the smartest people in infosec. For those not in the field, Thomas, Dave and Jeremy are well known and highly respected.

Many acquisitions are to get the talent but I can't remember another one where it's so apparent. The problem is that talent is mobile and $13m for a few super-smart people who leave after a year is expensive.

[tptacek]

There is no such thing as a non-talent acquisition in consulting. We're not going anywhere; like iSEC before us, we continue to run independently as Matasano.

[obtu]

Two years at least:

> Consideration of £8.4m - initially £4.2m, then two further payments up to £4.2m in total over next 24 months against performance related targets

[thomc]

It was apparent with NGS too, who were (are) one of the most highly regarded pen testing companies here in the UK. Having worked with many of the leading ones I can say NGS was always at the top of the list, helped not only by their talent but also small size which made them flexible and adaptable. After the acquisition I noticed this changed and a number of the guys I'd worked with left. So it is probably good that Matasano is staying Matasano but with the ability to draw on the collective resources of all the other teams.

[jgrahamc]

I'm happy for tptacek. He's a great member of this community and deserves every success.

[casca]

For those who are familiar with tptacek from HN but don't know why he's so respected in the infosec space: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/06/how-to-break-into-securit..., http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/06/how-companies-can-beef-up...

[ilconsigliere]

I'm really enjoying the "How to Break into Security" posts you linked to.

The infosec (specifically, appsec) space seems very very interesting.

[fasouto]

Congrats for the adquisition tptacek! :)

[Off topic] I really like the name "matasano", it means bad doctor in informal Spanish. Matasano = matar(kill) + sano(healthy) literally means the doctor who kills the healthy patients.

[tptacek]

We like the name too! We picked it after giving up on naming the company (we had chosen "Aperture Security" only to find a week later that it had already been taken) and consulting a "list of plant names" for cool-sounding plants.

We hired a (very smart) Argentine national friend of ours who immediately made us aware of the connotation. We were somewhat unhappy for about 500 milliseconds, and then immediately very very happy.

[aortega]

Here in Argentina is a slang term for doctor, not particularly bad or good.

[smountcastle]

How come only ~1.3x annualized revenue (the press release said: Year to 30 June 2012, Matasano revenue was $5.0m)? That seems like a very low multiplier -- are consulting companies treated differently from product companies in this regard?

[alinajaf]

More congratulations for tptacek, I'm significantly less stupid for his comments and wish him all the best.

It's weird, just today I was thinking about what it would be like to work at a company like Matasano instead of being the paranoid security guy on every web app project I'm hired for.

[ontoillogical]

They're only hiring more people now then before. You should apply.

[revorad]

Congrats tptacek!! Thanks for all your amazing comments over the years and now that you are set for life, I expect more higher quality commentary. :-P

[latortuga]

Congratulations Thomas, I know I'm not the only one who has learned a mountain about security from you! You're an invaluable member of the community.

[justjimmy]

tptacek is one of the few names on HN I recognize during my short time here (not to mention he posts alot!), so needless to say it's pretty awesome to see this happened to him/her.

Congratulations!

[petercooper]

This makes me wonder.. how many of the http://news.ycombinator.com/leaders have had a company/technology acquired? Would be an interesting stat.

[edanm]

Congrats tptacek.

Besides being very happy for you, I'm now very happy for myself, for listening to your advice during the last half-year of starting my own consulting business.

Your very generous and open comments about everything to do with running a consulting business were, and are, a constant source of help and encouragement.

So congratulations, and I hope you have a lot of fun with your new friends at sibling companies! Much deserved!

[trevelyan]

What a wonderful thing to read. Upvoting threads doesn't have the weight of leaving a separate note, so congratulations!

[kyro]

Jesus, another no-revenue Silicon Valley social startup acquired. This madness will never end.

Congrats, though, Thomas.

[rdl]

Congratulations! (and wow, the low multiple for consulting in general is kind of sad, but oh well)

[debacle]

Does this mean you're going to be putting some of that $13m towards hiring a few fellow HNers?

[dhimes]

I'll add yet another "Congratulations, Thomas." Not only have your posts enlightened me with answers about security, more importantly they have taught me to ask questions about security practices. Thank you. This WIN was well-deserved.

[grandalf]

Congrats! I've much enjoyed your comments and knowledge on HN over the years.

[gruseom]

Extremely many congratulations! Now get some sleep.

[feralchimp]

rock on, tptacek! if you're not eating sushi off the top of a rare steak right now, stop what you're doing. :)