Google and Mandiant have confirmed a deal for Google to acquire the cybersecurity firm for $5.4 billion.
Mandiant is a long-time, well-respected member of the cybersecurity community, dating back to its founding in 2004. The company was among the first to directly tie China to cyber espionage, raising its stature in the industry. Microsoft originally was in talks to purchase Mandiant, but ultimately abandoned negotiations over concerns the company wasn’t a good fit, opening the way for Google to move in.
Google sees Mandiant as a way to help it bolster cloud security, as Google Cloud continues to grow and challenge AWS and Microsoft Azure.
“Cyber security is a mission, and we believe it’s one of the most important of our generation. Google Cloud shares our mission-driven culture to bring security to every organization,” said Kevin Mandia, CEO, Mandiant. “Together, we will deliver our expertise and intelligence at scale via the Mandiant Advantage SaaS platform, as part of the Google Cloud security portfolio. These efforts will help organizations to effectively, efficiently and continuously manage and configure their complex mix of security products.”
“The Mandiant brand is synonymous with unmatched insights for organizations seeking to keep themselves secure in a constantly changing environment,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. “This is an opportunity to deliver an end-to-end security operations suite and extend one of the best consulting organizations in the world. Together we can make a profound impact in securing the cloud, accelerating the adoption of cloud computing, and ultimately make the world safer.”
The deal must pass regulatory approval, and be approved by Mandiant stockholders. If everything goes well, the deal is expected to close later this year.
