Publicly traded identity management company Okta says it is acquiring Auth0, one of its biggest challengers, in an all-stock deal valued at $6.5B
that's a biggie. https://www.cnbc.com/... #oktasponsor #okta Clueless / @clueless_1337 : Turns out $OKTA bought Auth0 and solidified its lead-in IAM. Guess it's a clear monopoly right now! https://www.forbes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Ari Levy / @levynews : HUGE deal for Okta - spending $6.5 bln (21% of its market cap) on rival Auth0 https://www.cnbc.com/... @j0hnnyxm4s : Fewer choices means higher licensing costs and greater risk of breaches in the event of a major vulnerability https://twitter.com/... Jeff Richards / @jrichlive : old school: buybacks new school: invest in growth Love the way “newly public” companies are playing offense (see also: $TWLO) https://twitter.com/... Jamin Ball / @jaminball : Okta acquiring Auth0 is awesome. Purchase price of $6.5B $OKTA https://investor.okta.com/... Corey Quinn / @quinnypig : Allow me to translate this to @awscloud terms: An AWS SSO that knows how to talk about itself is buying an AmazonCognito that developers understand how to use. https://twitter.com/... Antoine Gara / @antoinegara : Interesting deal. Seems like the deal is priced at $276 a share. https://twitter.com/... Thanks: @alexrkonrad
ForbesAlex Konrad
Context & Ripple Effects
Okta had already added developer-oriented identity capabilities through its Stormpath acquihire after building the capital base reflected in its $75M funding round. The Auth0 deal extends that consolidation from a technology acquisition to the absorption of a major identity-management challenger.
Okta gains Auth0 in a $6.5B all-stock transaction, bringing one of its biggest challengers under the same corporate owner.
Auth0's customers, developers, and employees move from an independent identity-management vendor to Okta's organization and product portfolio.
Second-order effects
Corporate buyers that evaluated Okta and Auth0 as separate options will face a more concentrated supplier landscape when procuring identity-management tools.
Okta must combine two overlapping identity product lines without weakening the developer-focused capabilities that made Auth0 a challenger.
Third-order effects
The deal points to identity management consolidating around larger platforms that absorb specialist rivals, increasing the importance of product integration and customer trust rather than standalone vendor breadth.
If specialist absorption continues, independent identity vendors will face stronger pressure to differentiate around specific customer segments or technical workflows.
The trend: Identity management is moving toward platform consolidation as established vendors acquire specialist challengers to broaden their control of enterprise access layers.
funny market dynamics playing out in reaction to this news: public investors: Okta overpaid! 📉 private investors: Auth0 shouldn't have sold! 📈 https://twitter.com/...
Allow me to translate this to @awscloud terms: An AWS SSO that knows how to talk about itself is buying an Amazon Cognito that developers understand how to use. https://twitter.com/...
A HUGE congratulations to @eugenio_pace & the entire @auth0 team on their $6.5B sale to @okta Also a HUGE milestone for the @BessemerVP Growth fund as @auth0 is our first investment to graduate from the portfolio. A special shoutout to my partners @davidcowan & @mcadonofrio 🙌🏽 ht…
A company is worth $6bn because it lets you log onto gmail and slack with a single login, but had a bad day at the stock exchange because it paid too much for another company that does the same thing, and now I know why VCs are always mad at journalists https://www.cnbc.com/...
Congratulations to @auth0 on its $6.5Bn acquisition by @okta! We are proud to have had you in the @BessemerVP Growth portfolio 🥳 cc: @davidcowan @TheValuesVC https://twitter.com/...
I'm happy for the Auth0 team who deserve the riches I hope they'll see from this sale. For everyone else, I'm afraid this is pretty bad news :( Okta basically becomes a monopoly in the space now. https://twitter.com/...