Palo Alto CEO seeks to reassure CyberArk staff ahead of $25 billion deal
Nikesh Arora tells employees in Israel that the deal is about expansion, not cuts.
Nikesh Arora, the CEO of Palo Alto Networks, met with employees of CyberArk in Israel on Tuesday as the two companies prepare for one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the cybersecurity industry.
The visit comes months after Palo Alto agreed in July to acquire CyberArk for $25 billion in an all-stock transaction, a deal expected to close between February and May 2026. With the merger approaching, Arora sought to calm concerns among CyberArk employees about job security, organizational changes and Palo Alto’s intentions for the Israeli operation.
“Things inevitably change when two companies merge, but it shouldn’t affect most of the organization,” Arora said on Monday. “Some senior executives may make different choices, but this is not about 10% or 20% cuts. We have no such intention.”
The acquisition is the largest in Palo Alto’s history and marks a strategic shift for the company. Unlike its previous purchases, which focused on smaller startups, CyberArk is a publicly traded company and the deal is Palo Alto’s first all-stock acquisition of that scale.
Israel sits at the center of the transaction. Palo Alto currently employs around 1,600 people in the country, and Arora said the CyberArk acquisition will double that number once completed. He noted that even during the war, Palo Alto continued hiring locally, bringing on roughly 700 employees.
“Our intention is to invest in both teams and continue to be the largest cyber employer in Israel,” Arora said.
Founded by Nir Zuk, Palo Alto has built a significant presence in Israel over the past decade, turning the country into one of its most important research and development hubs. Following a series of acquisitions, the company’s Israeli R&D operation now occupies 22 floors of Tel Aviv’s Alon Tower, more than half of the building.
Arora, who joined Palo Alto as an external CEO after Zuk opted to remain in the role of chief technology officer, has reshaped the company through an acquisition-driven growth strategy. Since taking the helm, he has overseen a double-digit number of deals totaling billions of dollars, many of them involving Israeli startups. At the height of the war in late 2023, Palo Alto acquired Talon Cyber Security and Dig for a combined $1 billion.
In addressing concerns about overlap between the two companies, Arora emphasized that Palo Alto does not currently operate in identity management - CyberArk’s core specialty - suggesting that the merger would be additive rather than duplicative.
“The good news is that we currently have no products in identity management, the area CyberArk specializes in, so there’s no reason to cut there,” he said. “On the contrary, we plan to invest more.”
