Symantec to buy Israeli cybersecurity firm Fireglass to add remote browser isolation technology to its security portfolio
Kelly Jackson Higgins / darkREADING :
Context & Ripple Effects
Symantec is mid-acquisition-spree when it moves on Fireglass: within days it follows up with a deal for mobile security startup Skycure, signaling a portfolio-building push rather than a one-off purchase. The Fireglass deal matters because of what it adds — remote browser isolation, which keeps web-borne attacks off the endpoint by rendering pages remotely.
Browser isolation turns out to be a repeat acquisition theme long after this deal: McAfee later buys Light Point Security for the same category (McAfee's Light Point buy), and years on CrowdStrike pays roughly $400M for Israel-based browser security startup Seraphic (CrowdStrike's Seraphic acquisition) — making Symantec's 2017 move an early data point in a consolidation pattern around this technology.
First-order effects
- Symantec's security portfolio immediately gains remote browser isolation as a native capability, letting it sell web-threat protection alongside its existing endpoint offerings rather than ceding that layer to standalone vendors.
- Fireglass exits as an independent Israeli cybersecurity vendor and its isolation technology becomes a Symantec product line, with the founding team and roadmap absorbed into Symantec's portfolio strategy.
Second-order effects
- Rival security platforms face pressure to match the capability by acquisition rather than build: McAfee's later purchase of Light Point Security shows competitors treating browser isolation as a must-have feature worth buying.
- Israeli browser-security startups become a proven exit path, raising the strategic premium acquirers like CrowdStrike are willing to pay for similar teams — a dynamic visible in the much larger Seraphic deal nearly a decade later.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, browser isolation stops being a standalone product category and becomes a bundled feature inside broad security platforms, squeezing independent isolation vendors toward acquisition or irrelevance.
- The deal also foreshadows the broader restructuring of legacy endpoint security: Symantec itself later rebrands as NortonLifeLock after transferring the Symantec name to Broadcom, showing how quickly the acquirer's own identity becomes M&A currency.
The trend: Browser isolation is being consolidated from standalone startups into platform security portfolios through serial acquisitions, with Israeli firms as a recurring source of targets.