Cybersecurity is a secular growth trend. With the world going digital, protecting data and systems is more important than ever before. Estimates point toward global cybersecurity software spending increasing at an average high-single-digit-percentage pace over the next five years, approaching or exceeding $300 billion a year. 

Mighty Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is already the largest cybersecurity company around as measured by revenue, and it has its sights set on gobbling up more of this fast-growing market. It recently announced new cloud-based security products that seem likely to threaten top cloud security pure-play names like Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW), CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ: CRWD), and Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS). Are these smaller stocks in trouble?

There are a lot of cybersecurity software pure-play stocks out there, but Microsoft reigns supreme. Earlier this year, CEO Satya Nadella said that cybersecurity revenue surpassed $20 billion in 2022. It takes the top seven largest cybersecurity companies' revenue combined to reach Microsoft's scale.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com