On July 1 2013, we completed a management buyout from my former company, thus creating Farsight Security as a separate entity dedicated to the proposition that all Internet users deserved a reasonable expectation of safety, and having the mission of inventing and delivering observational services and tools for Internet defenders who shared our goals. The world is far less safe with an Internet than it was beforehand, and we are part of a loose global team that wants to reverse that trend.
On November 2 2021, we completed the sale of Farsight Security to DomainTools after almost a year of corporate development work during which time we spoke to dozens of potential investors and potential acquirers. Thus the first chapter of the Farsight Security story took eight years, five months, and one day to unfold. During that time, we introduced and then normalized observational approaches to active defense, after action forensics, reconnaissance, and threat hunting. Some Farseers built the first distributed reputation system for the Internet back in the mid-1990s, but evolution was needed, and Farsight Security was the answer to that need.
At the end of the corporate development process, several acquirers were ready to buy out our shareholders at a similar valuation, and so the Board left it to me as Founder/CEO to select the acquirer who would give our other constituencies—the customers, partners, and employee families—the best future. I chose DomainTools without hesitation. DomainTools is a long-time partner and reseller so I know their management team and their corporate culture, and they know Farsight and they know what makes us unique. For continuity of services, vision, and culture I feel lucky to have had this outcome available.
It happens sometimes when a company is acquired that the Founder/CEO chooses not to continue with the combined entity, and so it is for me. I am indescribably proud of what we’ve accomplished and what those accomplishments can mean for the course of human history, but I am also aware that the company’s need for me is more in the past than in the future. This is my fifth startup, and I expect it to be my last. I will continue as a Strategic Advisor to my friend Tim Chen (CEO of DomainTools), assisting with the integration of two companies into one, and helping with outreach. I will also continue as a Director at SIE Europe U.G., and as a technical advisor to Fuxi Institute where SIE China will be built.
Many readers will know that your interests and mine are aligned, and some will think of yourselves as my fellow travelers. You do me much honour, and your confidence has ever been a catalyst for my passion. I expect and hope that our mutual defense of the productive part of Human society against the criminals who would prey upon us will long continue. Excelsior!
Dr. Paul Vixie
Founder and Founding CEO
Farsight Security
