Accenture places $4.2 billion bet on OT cybersecurity amid mixed outlook

Accenture is beefing up its cybersecurity business with a focus on operational technology. The company said it will acquire a majority stake in Dragos and all of runZero and NetRise in deals valued at $4.175 billion.

The consulting firm already has a $10 billion cybersecurity business and is doubling down on operational technology (OT) and securing power grids, pipelines, factories and similar infrastructure.

Accenture said the combination of the three companies have about $208 million in annual recurring revenue through June with growth of 53%. Accenture said the deals will be initially dilutive to earnings, but drive growth and earnings in the future.

Dragos, which provides OT threat detection, proprietary data and a neutral platform, will be combined with runZero, which has exposure assessment and attack-surface intelligence, and NetRise, which has firmware-level visibility into device exposure. Accenture will unify the platforms and operate the OT cybersecurity unit as an independent entity led by Dragos CEO Robert M. Lee.

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said the company is "confident Dragos’ differentiated OT platform will accelerate our growth in the critical infrastructure and industrial operations markets."

Separately, Accenture reported a solid third quarter, but a fourth quarter outlook that fell short of expectations largely due to US federal spending.

The company reported earnings of $3.80 a share on revenue of $18.7 billion, up 6% from a year ago. Accenture's constant currency growth was 3%.

As for the outlook, Accenture projected fourth quarter constant currency growth of 1% to 5% and fiscal 2026 revenue growth of 3% to 4%. The previous range was calling for 2026 growth of 3% to 5%. Earnings guidance was in line with the previous outlook.