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Okta (OKTA) CEO Todd McKinnon is making three daring bets to safe the corporate’s future: consolidating id, hardening cybersecurity, and coaching the following technology to make use of agentic AI.
“There’s a brand new approach to purchase id and to make use of id,” McKinnon instructed Yahoo Finance Government Editor Brian Sozzi on the Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast (see the video above; hear beneath). “It is not on this siloed world of you purchase buyer id and entry administration and privilege entry and id safety on all these siloed options.”
Talking at Dreamforce 2025 in San Francisco, McKinnon stated, “Corporations have too many id distributors,” and suggested that they “consolidate on id” to reap the associated fee and operational positive aspects.
Okta’s inventory has gained 13% yr to this point, roughly on par with the S&P 500’s (^GSPC) climb this yr. The corporate posted stronger-than-expected second quarter outcomes, fueled partially by demand from each authorities businesses and international enterprises.
Income got here in at $728 million, up 13% yr over yr and forward of Wall Road’s $711 million estimate, in response to Bloomberg information. Adjusted earnings per share climbed 26% to $0.91, beating expectations of $0.84.
Okta additionally raised its full-year income steering to a spread of $2.875 billion to $2.885 billion, representing 10% to 11% development. Nonetheless, its third quarter steering was extra cautious, with income projected between $728 million and $730 million, or 9% to 10% year-over-year development.
As Okta navigates rising competitors from Microsoft (MSFT) and Palo Alto Networks (PANW), McKinnon is betting the corporate can stand out by providing id, safety, and AI readiness by means of a single platform.
McKinnon’s first wager — id consolidation — targets a typical ache level. He argued that enterprises counting on a number of id distributors are at an obstacle. By consolidating on a single platform, companies can decrease prices, roll out new instruments sooner, and enhance safety.
The second wager focuses on closing safety gaps. Identification-based breaches stay a prime enterprise threat, and fragmented programs create “gaps or crevices” hackers can exploit.
“It is the comprehensiveness of the protection. It is not sufficient to simply defend your most safe functions and providers. You need to defend all the things,” he stated. A unified “id safety cloth” would give corporations a sooner, extra coordinated risk response, he added.