Google to buy Mandiant for $5.4 billion
Alphabet Inc’s Google will pay $23 per share, and the cybersecurity company will join Google Cloud.
Rumors that Google might take ownership of Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm that discovered the infamous SolarWinds hack, started surfacing earlier today.
According to a press release by Mandiant, ‘the acquisition will complement Google Cloud’s strengths in security.’ The merger is expected to allow Google to provide an end-to-end security operation suite.
Google Cloud ranks third is behind Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure in the market share of cloud services.
“This is an opportunity to deliver an end-to-end security operations suite and extend one of the best consulting organizations in the world,” Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said.
In a Google Cloud statement the company said that organizations are facing ever increasing cybersecurity challenges.
The deal is expected to close later this year. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft is also eyeing Mandiant.
The company started gaining interest from potential buyers after FireEye, former owner of Mandiant, sold its product business and the FireEye name for $1.2 billion.
Mandiant was pivotal in discovering the SolarWind supply chain attack. The attack is attributed to Russia-linked APT29 cyberespionage group also known as Cozy Bear.
The company's operations draw on the work of more than 600 security consultants and more than 300 intelligence analysts.
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