Mr. John Giamatteo reports

ARCTIC WOLF AND BLACKBERRY ANNOUNCE ACQUISITION AGREEMENT FOR CYLANCE

Arctic Wolf and BlackBerry Ltd. have entered into a definitive agreement for Arctic Wolf to acquire BlackBerry's Cylance end point security assets. Cylance is the pioneer of artificial-intelligence-based end point protection trusted by thousands of organizations around the world. With this acquisition, Arctic Wolf ushers in a new era of simplicity, flexibility and outcomes to the end point security market, delivering the security operations results customers have been asking for.

Under the terms of the agreement, BlackBerry will sell its Cylance assets to Arctic Wolf for $160-million of cash, subject to certain adjustments, and approximately 5.5 million common shares of Arctic Wolf. After allowing for the purchase price adjustments, BlackBerry will receive approximately $80-million of cash at closing and approximately $40-million of cash one year following the closing.

The proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in BlackBerry's fourth fiscal quarter.

Arctic Wolf is a leader in AI-powered security operations, delivering its solutions from a single open platform to meet customers' needs for effective, comprehensive and reliable security outcomes. With the addition of Cylance's trailblazing suite of end point security capabilities and enhanced AI functionality, Arctic Wolf will bolster its position as a market-leading platform provider, offering coverage from the end point to the edge.

As many organizations are looking to consolidate an increasing number of disparate security tools, there is a rapidly growing demand for end-to-end platforms.

"Security has an operations and effectiveness problem and end point solutions alone have failed to live up to the outcomes they have promised for years," said Nick Schneider, president and chief executive officer, Arctic Wolf. "By incorporating Cylance's end point security capabilities into our open-XDR Aurora platform, we will be addressing a rampant need for a truly unified, effective security operations that delivers better outcomes for customers. We believe we will be able to rapidly eliminate alert fatigue, reduce total risk exposure and help customers unlock further value with our warranty and insurability programs."

"I am incredibly excited to partner with Arctic Wolf through this agreement," said John Giamatteo, chief executive officer of BlackBerry. "We see this transaction as a win-win for our shareholders and all other stakeholders. Our customers will realize the benefits of continuity of service and the expertise that a global cybersecurity leader like Arctic Wolf provides. Arctic Wolf benefits by adding Cylance's end point security solutions to its native platform. Finally, as Arctic Wolf leverages its scale to build upon and grow the Cylance business, BlackBerry will benefit as a reseller of the portfolio to our large government customers and as a shareholder of the company."

There will be no impact to BlackBerry's secure communications portfolio of businesses, which include BlackBerry UEM, BlackBerry AtHoc and BlackBerry SecuSUITE. The secure communications business will remain an integral part of the BlackBerry portfolio.

Redefining the modern security platform for customers and partners

With the addition of a native end point security solution to its portfolio, Arctic Wolf is building one of the largest open XDR security platforms in the industry, enabling customers and partners to have the option to leverage more than 15 supported end point solutions. Arctic Wolf is currently the only security operations leader offering this type of optionality, which combined with its comprehensive approach to minimizing risk through security operations, makes it uniquely positioned to drive value for customers of all sizes and security maturity.

Cylance has a long history of recognition as a market leader, known for stopping 98 per cent of attacks before they begin and trusted by many of the world's leading organizations for its AI-driven prevention and detection. Recently, Cylance was named 2024 Customers' Choice for end point protection platforms (EPP) by Gartner Peer Insights for the second consecutive year. By integrating Cylance into its portfolio, Arctic Wolf will provide a world-class end point protection solution that rivals the best in the industry, complementing its end point offering with one of the largest commercial SOCs in the world that delivers unified security operations and comprehensive attack surface coverage.

"Organizations are looking to unify tools and operations via a single platform that can effectively analyze and respond to security threats, drive consistent security outcomes, and demonstrably minimize risk," said Dan Schiappa, chief product and services officer, Arctic Wolf. "In the past, this has been a near-impossible, costly goal for resource-constrained leaders. By adding end point security to our platform, we will be delivering the security outcomes organizations want in one, frictionless operational platform to go toe-to-toe with today's advanced threats, while maintaining our commitment to customers and partners leveraging other end point solutions."

Perella Weinberg Partners LP served as exclusive financial adviser to BlackBerry and Morrison Foerster LLP served as legal adviser to BlackBerry. Cooley LLP served as legal adviser to Arctic Wolf.

Join BlackBerry's chief executive officer and chief financial officer today, Monday, Dec. 16, at 5:30 p.m. ET for more information on today's announcement. The call, which will be live streamed to the general public, can be accessed using a link available in the original version of this release, through the company's investor website, or by dialling toll-free 1-844-763-8275 and entering Elite Entry No. 51772. A replay will be available at approximately 8:30 p.m. ET today, using the same webcast link, or by dialling toll-free 1-877-481-4010 and entering replay access code 51772.

Read more about Arctic Wolf's intent to acquire Cylance in a blog post from Arctic Wolf's chief product and services officer, Dan Schiappa.

About BlackBerry Ltd.

BlackBerry provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world. The company's software powers over 255 million vehicles. Based in Waterloo, Ont., the company leverages AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, safety and data privacy solutions and is a leader in the areas of end point management, end point security, encryption and embedded systems. BlackBerry's vision is clear -- to secure a connected future you can trust.

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