FireEye, Mandiant to Split in $1.2 Billion Deal

FireEye is selling its core cybersecurity products to a group led by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG) in order to focus on its Mandiant threat response and services business.

FireEye’s products span network, email, endpoint and cloud security, and the vendor has been pursuing an XDR platform approach to unite them all.

The rebranded Mandiant Solutions will focus on high-growth services areas like Automated Defense, CEO Kevin Mandia said in a blog post. The products and services businesses will continue to collaborate on threat intelligence, product telemetry and sales, perhaps alleviating any customer concerns about continuity between the two groups.

Mandia will become CEO of Mandiant, the company he founded in 2004 and sold to FireEye in late 2013. FireEye Products EVP Bryan Palma will take the helm of the new products company.

FireEye and Mandiant have seen their reputation climb in recent months with rapid detection of the SolarWinds hack, among other high-profile cyber attacks.

Wall Street investors had a lukewarm response to the news, sending FEYE shares 15% lower in midday trading Thursday. Products accounted for $795 million of the company’s $941 million in revenue in 2020. Product sales rose 2% last year, while the services business grew 19% to $216 million. Gartner expects worldwide information security and risk management spending to grow 12% this year to $150 billion, with services making up almost half the market.

STG, meanwhile, already owns RSA and other security properties and will soon add McAfee’s enterprise business, creating potential synergies among the cybersecurity products businesses.

The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter, giving Mandiant a significant chunk of cash to grow its services business.

Paul Shread
Paul Shread
eSecurityPlanet Editor Paul Shread has covered nearly every aspect of enterprise technology in his 20+ years in IT journalism, including award-winning articles on endpoint security and virtual data centers. He wrote a column on small business technology for Time.com, and covered financial markets for 10 years, from the dot-com boom and bust to the 2007-2009 financial crisis. He holds a market analyst certification. In a previous life he worked for daily newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun, and spent 7 years covering the federal government. Al Haig once compared him to Bob Woodward (true story - just ask Google).

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