en.Wedoany.com Reported - US cloud-native cybersecurity company CrowdStrike announced on July 17, 2026, that it has signed an agreement with Schwarz Digits to acquire the intellectual property of XM Cyber, including its source code, technical assets, and a portfolio of over 45 patents. XM Cyber will continue to operate as an independent business, serving customers through a long-term licensing arrangement, with this transaction involving only the transfer of intellectual property.
This deal comes during a period of rapid consolidation in the fields of exposure management, attack path analysis, and breach simulation. According to Momentum Cyber data, global cybersecurity spending is expected to exceed $520 billion in 2026, with a significant portion of investment flowing toward end-to-end platforms rather than standalone tools. CrowdStrike's move aligns with forecasts from Gartner and Forrester analysts: Gartner predicts that by 2026, over 60% of organizations will adopt some form of continuous exposure management or attack surface management; Forrester forecasts that by 2027, breach and attack simulation capabilities will be bundled into at least 50% of market-leading XDR platforms.
XM Cyber's assets are highly aligned with CrowdStrike's plans to expand its Falcon exposure management capabilities. XM Cyber is known for its attack path management technology, which simulates an intruder's movement within a network and prioritizes the most critical weaknesses, often mapped to frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK. By acquiring this intellectual property, CrowdStrike can integrate these capabilities into its platform. The transaction structure reflects industry trends: while Schwarz Group fully acquired XM Cyber for $700 million in 2021, Momentum Cyber reports that strategic acquirers, including CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks, accounted for over 90% of cybersecurity transaction value in 2025, with these deals focusing on capabilities that can be embedded into extended detection and response systems or integrated into product portfolios.
In addition to the intellectual property acquisition, CrowdStrike is expanding its strategic partnership with Schwarz Digits. As part of this collaboration, the CrowdStrike Falcon platform will be deployed on STACKIT—a sovereign cloud platform created by Schwarz Digits designed to serve European enterprises that require their data to remain entirely within the EU. Regulatory factors include the Cyber Resilience Act and NIS2, which are driving companies to reconsider data storage locations and how to demonstrate security controls. The combination of STACKIT and Falcon aims to meet this demand.
This transaction also reflects competitive dynamics. Palo Alto Networks continues to deepen its Cortex and attack surface management capabilities, while Tenable is actively positioning itself in the continuous exposure management space. Platforms are absorbing specialized technologies to reduce tool sprawl for customers, allowing teams to focus on priority risks. In this process, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is often used as a reference, particularly the Identify and Protect functions. XM Cyber will continue to operate as an independent company under Schwarz Digits, with existing customers seeing no immediate changes but having the option to migrate over time through programs such as Falcon Flex.
The rapid advancement of attacker automation is driving these investments. AI-powered tools enable adversaries to link vulnerabilities and discover lateral movement paths faster than human teams. Exposure management technology gains an edge by identifying exploitable scenarios earlier than attackers, and when combined with breach simulation and attack path modeling, it provides security teams with a more dynamic understanding of the environment compared to traditional periodic assessments. Cybersecurity transaction value in 2025 is estimated between $96 billion and $102 billion, involving approximately 400 deals, representing a year-over-year increase of about 270% to 300%, indicating a market shift from fragmented standalone products toward integrated security ecosystems.
