Tech giant Google makes a move, acquiring Mandiant for $5.4 billion following a series of industry rumors in recent weeks.

Google to Acquire Mandiant for $5.4 Billion in Cash

In a significant move, Google has announced its intention to acquire Mandiant, a leading cybersecurity firm, for $5.4 billion in cash. The deal, expected to close soon, will see Mandiant being folded into Google Cloud.

Mandiant, widely recognised as the nation's leading incident response firm for enterprise security, brings a wealth of expertise to Google's security division. The acquisition demonstrates Google's seriousness about growing its revenue in the security sector, according to Neil MacDonald, VP, distinguished analyst, and Gartner Fellow at Gartner.

Prior to this acquisition, Mandiant was part of FireEye, but sold its cybersecurity products business to Symphony Technology Group for $1.2 billion in cash in June 2021. Mandiant's CEO, Kevin Mandia, aims to use the resources from the acquisition to add automation and analyze security telemetry at a faster pace.

Google Cloud's platform already relies on endpoint detection and response (EDR) to complete its extended detection and response (XDR) offering. With Mandiant on board, the company aims to offer an end-to-end security operations suite with comprehensive services.

The acquisition price represents a 57% premium to Mandiant's 10-day trading volume weighted average stock price as of Feb. 7. This offer comes as Microsoft, too, has been looking to strengthen its security offering by making key acquisitions. Reports emerged about Microsoft entering talks to buy Mandiant on Feb. 7.

Google has pledged to invest $10 billion in cybersecurity within five years and to train 100,000 Americans through its certificate programs. The partnership between Google and Mandiant aims to scale Mandiant's intelligence at Google scale to secure the cloud.

However, significant gaps remain for the combined entity of Google Cloud and Mandiant, particularly on the enterprise endpoint. Google has already taken steps to address this, having recently acquired security operations company Siemplify to better hunt, detect, and respond to threats.

The acquisition of Mandiant will give Google a security response capability on par with Microsoft's Detection and Response (DART) team. Mandiant has been a highly sought-after business partner in the rapidly consolidating cybersecurity industry. Google responds to approximately 1,000 security breaches each year, and with Mandiant's expertise, it hopes to significantly improve its security offerings.

Google Labs and its threat research capability will get an uplift from the Mandiant brand name. The acquisition is expected to close, marking a significant step forward in Google's commitment to cybersecurity.

Tech giant Google makes a move, acquiring Mandiant for $5.4 billion following a series of industry rumors in recent weeks.