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Co-CEO and COO Mark Thurmond responded that growth is coming from both new customers adopting the Tenable One platform and a massive opportunity within the existing installed base. He highlighted a seven-figure cloud deal with a health agency as an example of consolidation, where the customer needed a unified view of a hybrid environment including on-prem, cloud, and OT assets.

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CFO Steve Vintz confirmed the implied 8-9% CCB growth for Q4, stating it assumes continued strength in exposure solutions and moderation in VM. He noted this is a fair expectation for 2025 growth and that the overall pipeline is healthy with large, late-stage opportunities.

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CEO Matt Cohen stated that AI agents, which can dynamically elevate their own privileges while accessing data, represent the core security problem CyberArk has been solving for decades. He asserted that the company's platform, which combines tools for dynamic human access with machine identity solutions, is uniquely positioned to secure these agents as their privilege levels change. He also noted more details would be shared at the upcoming Investor Day.

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CEO Matt Cohen clarified the pricing models, stating human identity is based on seats, Secrets Management is based on applications, and Venafi's certificate management is based on 'instances'. He estimated that a full Secrets deployment could be 1.5x the size of a PAM deal, and the certificate opportunity could be even larger, potentially 2x, leading to significantly larger deal sizes.

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CEO Nikesh Arora described DeepSeek as a pivotal moment for AI, noting its high quality and low cost are driving widespread experimentation. He emphasized that any new technology adoption, especially AI, necessitates enhanced security measures. This trend creates a significant opportunity for Palo Alto Networks' solutions, such as AI firewalls, to secure these new enterprise AI deployments.

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Chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora identified AI-driven attacks as the primary catalyst for sustained security spending. He explained that the platform consolidation trend directly addresses CIOs' need for value by delivering better security outcomes at a lower cost. Regarding potential administrative changes, he noted that higher uncertainty often translates to increased risk, which can bolster security demand.

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CEO Corey Thomas acknowledged that the transition away from their legacy VM solution created retention and new business pressure in the prior year. For 2025, he stated that the baseline guidance assumes retention stabilizes at last year's levels. He sees upside potential as the company works to upgrade its installed base from the legacy InsightVM product to the more integrated and stickier Exposure Command platform, which should improve retention and create expansion opportunities.

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CEO Corey Thomas stated that the clear focus for next year is on reaccelerating growth. He explained that after investing in the product portfolio this year and seeing positive early indicators, the company is now set up to prioritize growth. While they expect to grow free cash flow dollars, the primary objective is to leverage the improved product set to drive top-line acceleration.

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CEO Matthew Prince responded that developments like DeepSeek are a positive sign for Cloudflare, validating its focus on efficiency and the commoditization of AI models. He explained that this trend plays to Cloudflare's strength in optimizing infrastructure, noting that inference and AI agents are the killer applications for the Cloudflare Workers platform, which can deliver better price-performance than hyperscalers.

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CEO Nadav Zafrir responded that customers want faster innovation in SASE and AI, but delivered responsibly without sacrificing security and reliability. CFO Roei Golan guided for an operating margin approximately 0.5% below 2024's level, primarily due to the Cyberint acquisition, and stated no significant FX benefit is expected.

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Founder and CEO Gil Shwed acknowledged that the refresh cycle is taking longer than he would like but noted that Check Point is winning healthy refresh deals. He expressed that while the company's new product lines and Maestro hyperscaling technology are well-positioned to capture this demand, he would like to see the cycle accelerate faster, especially given the market weakness seen from some competitors.

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CFO and COO Guy Melamed clarified they are not pulling deals forward, but rather starting conversations earlier for renewals expiring within the year to manage the security and documentation process of moving to SaaS. He expressed confidence in future growth, pointing to the outstanding 50% ACV growth from new customers in 2024 and the untapped upsell potential that will be unlocked once the transition is complete. CEO Yaki Faitelson emphasized the drastic value difference of the SaaS platform and the company's ability to innovate quickly on its scalable architecture.

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CFO & COO Guy Melamed stated that while Gen AI comes up in nearly every customer conversation, the company is not yet sizing the opportunity or baking material amounts into guidance because it's still early. However, he confirmed that deals related to Gen AI began to close for the first time this quarter, increasing their confidence. CEO Yaki Faitelson added that as Gen AI use becomes widespread among knowledge workers, protecting against data overexposure will be inevitable.

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CFO Natalie Derse reaffirmed that the company's capital allocation strategy remains unchanged and consistent with their Analyst Day framework. She stated that once the deal closes, Gen will resume its balanced approach, opportunistically pursuing both accelerated debt paydown and share buybacks. She also noted the company plans to refinance its 2025 senior unsecured notes soon, signaling a return to market activity.

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CFO Natalie Derse explained that advertising costs vary by brand and channel. She noted that while the overall cost of acquisition is 'stable to up,' the company optimizes for ROI. She clarified that acquiring a high-value LifeLock customer has a higher absolute dollar cost (CAC) than a security customer in a new international market, which is justified by the higher lifetime value.

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CEO Todd McKinnon explained that while bundling appears cheaper initially, it ultimately removes customer choice, leading to higher long-term costs and worse security outcomes. He emphasized that identity is a strategic control point, and Okta's position as an independent, neutral platform allows customers to choose best-of-breed technologies, which is critical in an adversarial security landscape. This message, he noted, is resonating with customers.

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CFO Burt Podbere responded that visibility for Q4 remains limited due to the ongoing effects of the July incident and the deployment of Customer Commitment Packages (CCPs). He noted that while Q4 is typically their largest quarter for renewals, it is too early to predict the outcome given these unique circumstances.

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CEO George Kurtz clarified the incident was a configuration update, not a code or kernel update, and defended the current architecture as best-in-class, citing superior efficacy and a lightweight agent. He stated no re-architecture is needed, and CrowdStrike will continue to work with Microsoft as part of the broader ecosystem without impacting its innovation.

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Founder, Chairman and CEO Ken Xie explained that Fortinet's key differentiator is its single operating system, FortiOS, which runs all SASE functions both on-premise and in the cloud, enabling private or 'Sovereign SASE'. He highlighted that this allows service providers and enterprises to deploy SASE in their own data centers for data privacy. Xie also noted the easy migration path for their large firewall and SD-WAN customer base, which can enable SASE in minutes, contributing to a pipeline growth of over 100% for SSE.

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CEO Jagtar Chaudhry cited the successful shift to an account-centric sales motion, which is driving larger upsell deals and is reflected in the strong growth of customers with over $1 million and $5 million in ARR. He also pointed to deeper engagement with GSIs and the high quality of new sales leaders. CFO Remo Canessa added his confidence in the strength of the new go-to-market leadership team.

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CEO Tomer Weingarten affirmed that the go-to-market execution showed good evidence of improvement in Q2 and is trending positively. He mentioned that the company is seeing better sales cadence, pipeline retention, and conversion rates, independent of recent competitive events. Weingarten noted that these improvements position SentinelOne well to capture the increased market interest, but the company is taking a responsible approach to its forecast for the rest of the year.

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