Priya Patel
TLDR:
- Mastercard has acquired threat intelligence giant Recorded Future for $2.65 billion.
- The acquisition is part of Mastercard’s efforts to enhance its security offerings and combat fraud.
Article Summary:
Mastercard has made a substantial investment of $2.65 billion to purchase Recorded Future, a prominent threat intelligence company. Recorded Future is utilized by government agencies in 45 countries and over 50% of the Fortune 100 companies. The acquisition aligns with Mastercard’s strategy to bolster its security infrastructure and combat fraudulent activities in the digital economy.
Recorded Future, initially backed by the CIA’s venture capital arm, focuses on providing threat intelligence data to intelligence agencies, cyber defense agencies, and military organizations. By integrating AI into its products, Recorded Future aims to enhance its intelligence capabilities and provide unparalleled analysis to its customers.
The collaboration between Mastercard and Recorded Future has already shown promising results in identifying fraudulent credit card use using AI. This partnership has doubled the efficiency of Mastercard’s fraud detection systems. With this acquisition, Mastercard intends to strengthen its offerings in identity, fraud prevention, and cybersecurity services, ensuring trust in the digital economy.
Mastercard has been actively investing in security technologies, having spent over $3 billion in the past three years on acquiring security businesses. This acquisition of Recorded Future follows previous investments in companies like Ekata for identity management and CipherTrace for crypto-fraud detection. The deal is expected to be finalized by the first quarter of 2025, pending regulatory approval.
