ZSCALER (+) : Zscaler acquires DSPM Symmetry Systems

Research evidence excerpt

ZSCALER (+) : Zscaler acquires DSPM Symmetry Systems

EQUITIES

SOFTWARE

ZSCALER OUTPERFORMPRICE* USD174.5  TARGET PRICE USD250 (UPSIDE 43%)

FLASH NOTE

Zscaler acquires DSPM Symmetry Systems

21 MAY 2026 Securities Research Report Production time: 15:23* (London time)

Research Analyst & Publishing Entities

Andrew DeGasperi BNP Paribas Securities Corp (1) (+1) 917 472 4745 andrew.degasperi@us.bnpparibas.com

What happened?

This morning Zscaler announced an intent to acquire Symmetry Systems, a Data Security Posture Management

(DSPM) product. We believe the acquisition helps enhance the company’s Data Security offering by supplying

critical context on sensitive data (where, who, why) from the use of AI agents (a key concern with Anthropic’ s

Mythos) but also expands its platform capabilities and alleviates investor concerns that it’s losing ground to Palo Alto

Networks and CrowdStrike after their own aggressive M&A efforts. Zscaler will now have the foundational visibility to

map human and non‑human identities, applications and data to enforce Zero Trust policies on autonomous AI agents.

Purchase price and consideration mix were not disclosed but we think the deal is not material, as such ZS shares are

unlikely to replicate the volatility we saw post-Red Canary deal.

Strategic Rationale? Enhance Data Security post-Mythos

Typically, security analysts like to supplement Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools with DSPM offerings to create a

dynamic, adaptive enforcement structure (vs. conventional allow/block tools) and protect against data leakage from the

use of GenAI tools. Symmetry’s access‑graph engine ingests SaaS, cloud, data‑store and AI‑system logs, correlating

them into a live map to provide visibility to where the data resides, who has accesses and why.