Proofpoint's founder had been the chief technology officer at Netscape, and he started the company while spam was flooding inboxes. Proofpoint protected corporate email. Its software screened messages for spam, phishing and malware, and kept sensitive data from leaking out. Email was the most common way attackers reached employees. When Proofpoint filed to go public in 2012, it was moving its products to the cloud and adding archiving and compliance tools.

Betting Email Would Last

Eric Hahn founded Proofpoint in 2002. Spam was flooding inboxes, and companies needed a better filter. Gary Steele became chief executive in the company's first year and led it for many years. The bet was that email would stay at the center of business. Attacks against it would keep getting more targeted and more costly. Phishing attacks were already growing more common.

A $12.3 Billion Buyout

Proofpoint priced at $13 a share in April 2012. It grew steadily as phishing became the main way into companies, and it bought several smaller security firms along the way. The stock rose for years. In 2021 Thoma Bravo bought Proofpoint for about $12.3 billion, one of the largest software buyouts of that period. Under private ownership Proofpoint kept buying companies and widening its products.

Cover: Woman Reading a Letter, from the series Ten Classes of Women's Physiognomy (Fujo ninso juppon) (Fumi yomu onna), Kitagawa Utamaro. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a woman reading a letter (email).