Quorum Cyber has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ontinue (See Ontinue’s Pulse 2.0 profile here), a managed extended detection and response provider, in a transaction designed to create a larger Microsoft-focused cybersecurity platform built around agentic AI and 24/7 security operations. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The proposed combination will bring together Quorum Cyber’s cyber resilience, threat intelligence, incident response and professional services capabilities with Ontinue’s Agentic Security Operations Center platform.
The companies are positioning the transaction around a shift in cybersecurity from AI tools that assist human analysts toward agentic systems capable of continuously investigating threats, reasoning across security context and taking actions at machine speed while keeping people responsible for strategy, guardrails and critical decisions.
Quorum Cyber is a Microsoft-centric cybersecurity services provider, while Ontinue specializes in MXDR services delivered through an AI-first operating model.
Following completion of the transaction, the combined company is expected to offer a broader approach spanning secure AI adoption, proactive risk reduction, continuous threat detection, incident response and recovery.
Rather than treating individual security products as disconnected tools, the companies want to create an integrated operating model in which Microsoft security technologies work together with AI agents and human defenders.
The goal is to reduce the operational burden on security teams while shortening the path from detecting suspicious activity to making a decision and taking action.
Ontinue’s Agentic SOC is central to that strategy.
The platform is designed to allow AI agents to investigate, decide and act within customer-defined guardrails while keeping security professionals in control of risk and accountability.
That model is intended to address what Ontinue describes as a growing mismatch between attackers that can increasingly operate at machine speed and defensive organizations whose workflows still depend heavily on human decision cycles.
The transaction will also deepen Quorum Cyber’s relationship with the Microsoft security ecosystem.
Quorum Cyber is a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security, holds all Microsoft Security specializations and is a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association. The company was also named Microsoft’s 2025 Security MSSP of the Year.
Ontinue is a first-wave MISA member, a five-time Microsoft Gold Partner and has received multiple Microsoft awards, including MSSP Partner of the Year.
Together, the companies plan to help customers deploy and operate products including Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender XDR, Azure, Entra, Purview, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Security Copilot.
The combined organization also expects to support newer Microsoft technologies including Scout, Agent 365 and emerging agentic security capabilities.
One area of particular interest is Microsoft Project Perception.
Project Perception is described as an agentic security system that uses specialized red, blue and green agents, purpose-built cyber models and security signals in a closed-loop architecture.
The system is intended to continuously test defenses, investigate threats and strengthen security posture while leaving consequential security decisions under human control.
Quorum Cyber and Ontinue see that architecture as representative of a broader transition toward security platforms in which AI does more than surface alerts or recommend actions.
Instead, agents increasingly perform portions of the investigation and response process while operating inside security policies defined by the organization.
The acquisition also expands the geographic reach of the combined business.
Quorum Cyber and Ontinue expect to strengthen their presence across North America, the UK and the DACH region, giving the company a larger base from which to support multinational customers facing different cybersecurity, compliance and data-governance requirements.
The broader strategic rationale comes as generative and agentic AI change both sides of cybersecurity.
Attackers can potentially automate reconnaissance, social engineering, vulnerability discovery and other activities, increasing the speed and scale at which security incidents develop.
Defenders are therefore looking for AI systems capable of performing more of the repetitive investigative and response work without simply adding additional dashboards and alerts for already stretched security teams.
Quorum Cyber believes the combination with Ontinue can address that problem by combining automation with managed security expertise rather than positioning AI as a replacement for experienced defenders.
The companies are also targeting organizations adopting AI internally.
As businesses deploy copilots and autonomous agents across employee workflows, they need additional governance, observability and security controls around how those systems interact with company data and infrastructure.
The combined business plans to help customers establish those foundations before expanding AI use more broadly.
Eterna Growth Partners, which is currently Quorum Cyber’s majority investor, will remain the majority investor in the combined company.
Quorum Cyber was advised on the transaction by Mintz, Macfarlanes and Schellenberg Wittmer. Ontinue was advised by Raymond James and Bär & Karrer.
The acquisition is expected to close following customary closing conditions and any required regulatory approvals. Until then, Quorum Cyber and Ontinue will continue operating as independent companies.
KEY QUOTES:
“AI has changed the speed, scale and economics of cyber defense. The future is not security teams managing more tools; it is experienced defenders directing AI-powered systems that can work continuously and act at machine speed, with humans firmly in control.”
Kevin Hanes, Chief Executive Officer of Quorum Cyber
“In the Autonomous Threat Era, when attackers operate at machine speed while most defenses still decide at human speed, Ontinue was founded on the conviction that AI must be intrinsic to security operations, not a bolt-on. Our Agentic SOC platform overcomes the human-decision bottleneck by letting AI agents investigate, decide and act at machine speed within customer-defined guardrails, while people stay in control of risk and accountability.”
Moritz Mann, CEO of Ontinue
