Google Completes $5.4 Billion Acquisition of Mandiant, Will Merge with Google Cloud

After months of anticipation, Google has completed its $5.4 billion acquisition of Mandiant to merge it with Google Cloud.

Google announced completion of the deal on Monday. This widens the scope of Google Cloud’s security services by bringing in Mandiant’s deep threat intelligence resources.

On Sept. 9, the Nasdaq issued a statement saying that was the anticipated final day of trading for Mandiant’s stock.

“If the merger closes as anticipated, the stock will remain halted on the day of closing (Sept. 12) and will be suspended effective Sept. 13,” it said.

The Department of Justice approved the deal in July. It granted early termination of the waiting period for the transaction to proceed. Regulatory approvals remained in certain foreign jurisdictions.

Continuing Mandiant’s Mission

Thomas Kurian is Google Cloud‘s CEO. He said Google Cloud and Mandiant both benefit from the acquisition.

Google Cloud’s Thomas Kurian

“Combining Google Cloud’s existing security portfolio with Mandiant’s leading cyber threat intelligence will allow us to deliver a security operations suite to help enterprises globally stay protected at every stage of the security life cycle,” he said. “With the scale of Google’s data processing, novel analytics approaches with AI and machine learning, and a focus on eliminating entire classes of threats, Google Cloud and Mandiant will help organizations reinvent security to meet the requirements of our rapidly changing world.”

Kurian said Google will maintain the Mandiant brand. In addition, it will continue Mandiant’s mission. That’s to make every organization secure from cyber threats and confident in their readiness.

Mandiant Threat Intelligence is compiled by a team of security and intelligence individuals across 22 countries, who serve customers located in 80 countries, Kurian said.

“This will give security practitioners greater visibility and expertise from the frontlines,” he said. “Mandiant’s experience detecting and responding to sophisticated cyber threat actors will offer Google Cloud customers actionable insights into the threats that matter to their businesses right now. We will continue to share groundbreaking Mandiant threat research to help support organizations, even for those who don’t run on Google Cloud.”

Mandiant Not Going Away

Kevin Mandia is Mandiant’s CEO. He said while Mandiant is now part of Google Cloud, “Mandiant is not going away — in fact, it’s getting stronger.”

Mandiant’s Kevin Mandia

“We will maintain our focus on knowing the most about threat actors and extend our reputation for delivering world-class threat intelligence, consulting services and security solutions,” he said.

Monday’s announcement should be “welcome news” to organizations facing cybersecurity challenges that have accelerated in frequency, severity and diversity, Mandia said.

“I have always believed that organizations can remain resilient in the fight against cyber threats if they have the right combination of expertise, intelligence and adaptive technology,” he said. “This is why I am a proponent of Google Cloud’s shared fate model. By taking an active stake in the security posture of customers, we can help organizations find and validate potential security issues before they become an incident. Google Cloud and Mandiant have the knowledge and skills to provide an incredibly efficient and effective security operations platform. We are building a security brain that scales our team to address the expertise shortage.”

FireEye last year sold off its products and the FireEye brand to a consortium for $1.2 billion. The remaining company, renamed Mandiant, focused on controls-agnostic software and services. Those services include managed detection and response, attack surface management and threat research. More than 300 intelligence analysts work for Mandiant. FireEye bought the Mandiant brand in 2013.