Google will buy Mandiant for $23 per share in a deal valued at about $5.4 billion, both companies confirmed in announcements Tuesday.
The offer price represents a 57% premium to the "undisturbed 10-day trailing volume weighted average price" as of Feb. 7, 2022, which the announcement described as the last full trading day prior to published market speculation regarding a potential sale of the company. Reports pointed first to Microsoft as a potential buyer, and then to Google.
Mandiant saw a 16% spike in share price Monday on speculation, while Google parent Alphabet Inc., saw a 4% dip.
News of the acquisition comes less than a year after the announced split of Mandiant from FireEye, which resulted from the acquisition by Symphony Technology Group of the FireEye products and name. At the time, Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia said decoupling with FireEye products was “essential” to Mandiant’s long-term future and plans to work with and incorporate data from other threat intelligence firms and partners.
“Independence is essential to the Mandiant Advantage platform. Companies want to know whether they are secure against the latest threats and I believe we are the only company to offer confidence in that regard,” said Mandia at the time. “Being independent from the FireEye security controls business will help eliminate any perceived bias in our platform.”
According to today's announcement, Mandiant and Google together "will deliver an end-to-end security operations suite" as well as advisory services.
“Together, we will deliver our expertise and intelligence at scale via the Mandiant Advantage SaaS platform, as part of the Google Cloud security portfolio," Mandia said in a released statement. "These efforts will help organizations to effectively, efficiently and continuously manage and configure their complex mix of security products.”
