Thought Leadership
Schwarz Digits has agreed to sell the intellectual property of XM Cyber, including more than 45 patents and its proprietary source code, to CrowdStrike.
The transaction does not include XM Cyber’s revenue, customers, or day-to-day operations. According to a joint announcement from the two companies, XM Cyber will continue operating as an independent business under a licensing agreement with CrowdStrike. The deal is expected to close during the second half of CrowdStrike’s fiscal year 2027.
XM Cyber specializes in attack path analysis. Its platform simulates how attackers could move through enterprise networks, helping security teams prioritize vulnerabilities that are actually exploitable rather than relying solely on traditional vulnerability scans. In Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant for Exposure Assessment Platforms, XM Cyber is recognized as a Challenger. CrowdStrike plans to integrate the technology into its Falcon Exposure Management platform. The company says the acquisition is driven by the rise of AI-powered attackers that can identify and chain together vulnerabilities faster than conventional scanners can prioritize them.
Schwarz Digits is the IT and digital division of the Schwarz Group, the parent company of Lidl and Kaufland. Among its technology offerings is the European cloud platform STACKIT.
U.S. Security Technology, European Cloud Infrastructure
At the same time, CrowdStrike and Schwarz Digits are expanding their cloud partnership. CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform will gradually become available on STACKIT, Schwarz Digits’ European cloud platform. The move reflects growing demand among European organizations for U.S. cybersecurity technology operated within a European cloud environment, driven in part by regulations such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act and NIS2.
For CrowdStrike, the partnership provides access to customers in a market where many organizations remain cautious about relying on hyperscale cloud providers. For Schwarz Digits, it adds a globally recognized cybersecurity platform to its sovereign cloud portfolio without the need to develop one in-house.
“We are making the Falcon platform a cornerstone of our cybersecurity strategy while providing a long-term path for running it on STACKIT. This enables organizations to systematically adopt AI-native protection. XM Cyber has proven its value in proactive cyber defense, and we will build on that foundation. Our customers can expect business as usual in their daily operations while gaining future access to the Falcon platform. By combining our expertise in operating large-scale IT infrastructure with one of the industry’s leading cybersecurity platforms, we are well positioned to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty.”
Christian Müller, CEO of Schwarz Digits
Whether this arrangement truly delivers digital sovereignty remains an open question. While the platform will operate within a European cloud environment, the underlying software will continue to be owned by a U.S. company — a point that is unsurprisingly absent from the statements by CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz and Schwarz Digits CEO Christian Müller.
(lb)
