Cybersecurity company FireEye Inc has acquired Mandiant Corp, the computer forensics specialist best known for unveiling a secretive Chinese military unit believed to be behind a series of hacking attacks on U.S. companies.FirEye shares jumped more than 20 percent after Thursday's announcement of the $1.05 billion cash-and-stock deal, which FireEye said closed on Monday. It unites two companies with relatively new technologies for thwarting cyber attacks, and brings together two of the most-respected executives in the security industry: FireEye CEO Dave DeWalt and Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia.While sales of older anti-virus products have been on the decline, security experts expect strong growth in both FireEye's cloud-based systems for detecting malicious software and Mandiant's software that analyzes cyber attacks.About a year ago the two companies entered into a technology development agreement that made it easier to deploy their products together. With the merger, FireEye will gain Mandiant's team of forensics investigators.
FireEye, Inc. invented a purpose-built, virtual machine-based security platform that provides real-time protection to enterprises and governments worldwide against the next generation of cyber attacks. Shares of FEYE fell by 5.69% or $-2.48/share to $41.13. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $33.30 and as high as $44.89. On average, 487511 shares of FEYE exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1007159.
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