Raytheon CEO Tom Kennedy on the Forcepoint Formula
Tom Kennedy, chief executive of Raytheon Co., recently sat down with The Wall Street Journal to discuss the acquisitions that have since evolved into expert cybersecurity provider Forcepoint. An excerpt of the interview is below. The full piece, featured in the journal's Business section, can be found here.
Defense Contractor Raytheon Pivots to Commercial Cybersecurity
CEO Tom Kennedy on why he thinks his company has an edge in a market that has foiled others
October 2, 2016
The Wall Street Journal
By Doug Cameron
TOM KENNEDY | Photo: Patrick McIntyre/Raytheon
Defense companies have struggled to parlay the cybersecurity expertise they’ve gained from working for the Pentagon into commercial data-protection products for banks and retailers facing increasingly sophisticated hacks.
Tom Kennedy, chief executive of Raytheon Co. , believes his company is different.
Raytheon, the maker of the Tomahawk cruise missile, last year capped a series of acquisitions in the commercial cybersecurity business with the $1.7 billion purchase of a controlling stake in Websense Inc., forming a new Raytheon unit called Forcepoint.
Forcepoint is seeking to secure a foothold in a highly fragmented and intensely competitive industry at a time when cyberthreats involve highly publicized external attacks and just-as-damaging internal ones.
The Wall Street Journal talked with Mr. Kennedy, age 61, about the changing industry.
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