NEW YORK: FireEye announced a nearly $1 billion deal Thursday to buy Alexandria, Va.-based Mandiant, combining two of the country's most high-profile cybersecurity firms at a time when U.S. corporations have become increasingly concerned about hackers.
Mandiant has become well known for its work tracking down security breaches that originate in China and can lay dormant in corporate computer networks for years. The firm has worked with The Washington Post as well as the New York Times and other media companies.
FireEye, based in California, bought Mandiant for $989 million in stock and cash, executives said Thursday. The deal was approved by both companies' boards and closed on Dec. 30.
With Thursday's announcement, Mandiant will become a public company for the first time. The decade-old firm says it does about $100 million a year in sales. Its 500 employees serve about 500 customers, most of which are in the Fortune 500, chief executive Kevin Mandia said in an interview.
Most of Mandiant's and FireEye's customers are U.S. corporations, but the companies hope that the merger will give them a strong position to expand internationally.
That could create tension between FireEye and the U.S. government as the company seeks more foreign clients, many of whom have grown suspicious of Washington during the ongoing controversy over NSA surveillance.
Although Mandiant and FireEye operate in the same industry, their capabilities are distinct. FireEye monitors customers' computer networks and detects when their security has been compromised. Mandiant, meanwhile, sells an incident-response platform that helps businesses determine when sensitive information has been breached and, the company says, automatically closes vulnerabilities.
Together, Mandiant and FireEye will be better equipped to move quickly from detection to response, said David DeWalt, FireEye's chairman and chief executive.
"What we're able to do now is go from basically alert to detection to a fix in minutes or seconds," he said. "If FireEye detects a breach, we can immediately communicate that to the Mandiant platform and essentially verify scope on all of the computers."
Mandiant accepted FireEye's deal even though it had considered making an initial public offering, Mandia said. In September, FireEye's IPO performed above expectations, beating its $16 price estimate by about $4 a share.
The company is trading at $41 a share.
FireEye has been pouring money into new markets and products. The company lost nearly $139 million over the past year as it spent on research and development.
Despite the losses, information security experts say they are optimistic about FireEye's growth, noting that demand for its products isn't going to shrink anytime soon.
"If we were to be optimistic about 2014, we could say that boards will finally pay attention to cybersecurity risks," said Allan Friedman, a cybersecurity scholar at the Brookings Institution and George Washington University. "There could be any number of senior officers who are going to be getting calls from their board saying, 'What are we doing about this?' and those people are going to go running to expert companies."
FireEye buys Mandiant in cybersecurity merger
FireEye buys Mandiant in cybersecurity merger
First EU–Saudi roundtable on critical raw materials reflects shared policy commitment
RIYADH: The EU–Saudi Arabia Business and Investment Dialogue on Advancing Critical Raw Materials Value Chains, held in Riyadh as part of the Future Minerals Forum, brought together senior policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to advance strategic cooperation across critical raw materials value chains.
Organized under a Team Europe approach by the EU–GCC Cooperation on Green Transition Project, in coordination with the EU Delegation to Saudi Arabia, the European Chamber of Commerce in the Kingdom and in close cooperation with FMF, the dialogue provided a high-level platform to explore European actions under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and ResourceEU alongside the Kingdom’s aspirations for minerals, industrial, and investment priorities.
This is in line with Saudi Vision 2030 and broader regional ambitions across the GCC, MENA, and Africa.
ResourceEU is the EU’s new strategic action plan, launched in late 2025, to secure a reliable supply of critical raw materials like lithium, rare earths, and cobalt, reducing dependency on single suppliers, such as China, by boosting domestic extraction, processing, recycling, stockpiling, and strategic partnerships with resource-rich nations.
The first ever EU–Saudi roundtable on critical raw materials was opened by the bloc’s Ambassador to the Kingdom, Christophe Farnaud, together with Saudi Deputy Minister for Mining Development Turki Al-Babtain, turning policy alignment into concrete cooperation.
Farnaud underlined the central role of international cooperation in the implementation of the EU’s critical raw materials policy framework.
“As the European Union advances the implementation of its Critical Raw Materials policy, international cooperation is indispensable to building secure, diversified, and sustainable value chains. Saudi Arabia is a key partner in this effort. This dialogue reflects our shared commitment to translate policy alignment into concrete business and investment cooperation that supports the green and digital transitions,” said the ambassador.
Discussions focused on strengthening resilient, diversified, and responsible CRM supply chains that are essential to the green and digital transitions.
Participants explored concrete opportunities for EU–Saudi cooperation across the full value chain, including exploration, mining, and processing and refining, as well as recycling, downstream manufacturing, and the mobilization of private investment and sustainable finance, underpinned by high environmental, social, and governance standards.
From the Saudi side, the dialogue was framed as a key contribution to the Kingdom’s industrial transformation and long-term economic diversification agenda under Vision 2030, with a strong focus on responsible resource development and global market integration.
“Developing globally competitive mineral hubs and sustainable value chains is a central pillar of Saudi Vision 2030 and the Kingdom’s industrial transformation. Our engagement with the European Union through this dialogue to strengthen upstream and downstream integration, attract high-quality investment, and advance responsible mining and processing. Enhanced cooperation with the EU, capitalizing on the demand dynamics of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, will be key to delivering long-term value for both sides,” said Al-Babtain.
Valere Moutarlier, deputy director-general for European industry decarbonization, and directorate-general for the internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs at European Commission, said the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and ResourceEU provided a clear framework to strengthen Europe’s resilience while deepening its cooperation with international partners.
“Cooperation with Saudi Arabia is essential to advancing secure, sustainable, and diversified critical raw materials value chains. Dialogues such as this play a key role in translating policy ambitions into concrete industrial and investment cooperation,” she added.
