General M&A
June 6, 2021
6 minutes read

Deal: FireEye Sells Products Business, Name To A PE Firm

In the cybersecurity industry, there’s been a unique deal that we feel is very worthy to report on. It’s that…

In the cybersecurity industry, there’s been a unique deal that we feel is very worthy to report on. It’s that of FireEye, the quite famous cybersecurity company, selling its Products division along with its brand name to a private equity firm.

Simply put, FireEye has agreed to sell its enterprise cybersecurity products division along with its brand name to a consortium led by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG).

The sale to Symphony is for a price of $1.2bn.

As the deal is structured, FireEye will shed off its Products business as well as its name to Symphony. It’ll then now have its Mandiant threat intelligence business left and take on that name.

Notably, Symphony bought the enterprise business of cybersecurity company McAfee this March, and it seems that the FireEye business will get merged with that.

There’s a bit of history between FireEye and Mandiant so let’s see that. Circa-2010, FireEye was an independent company selling cybersecurity hardware and software, and Mandiant was an independent cybersecurity consulting and threat intelligence firm. FireEye paid $1bn to buy Mandiant in 2013 and both companies combined.

Now, FireEye is getting sold to Symphony and Mandiant is taking its place as the publicly-traded company. It’s a plus for CEO Kevin Mandia (note the name Mandiant) who took up leadership three years after FireEye bought his eponymous company.