Mastercard to Buy Cyber-Defense Firm for $2.65 Billion (1)

Mastercard Inc. agreed to buy cyber-defense firm Recorded Future for $2.65 billion to boost its ability to protect the card company’s massive global-payments system.

The purchase from private equity firm Insight Partners will expand Mastercard’s ability to use artificial intelligence in protecting customers from cyber threats and fraud, according to a statement Thursday. Insight Partners took a controlling interest in Recorded Future in 2019 in an all-cash deal that valued the company at more than $780 million.

The deal for Recorded Future, whose earliest investors included Alphabet Inc.’s Google Ventures and In-Q-Tel, the national-security focused venture fund that was established ...