FireEye Picks Up Fellow Cybersecurity Intelligence Firm iSight For $200M

Cybersecurity and analysis firm FireEye has boosted its service with the acquisition of competitor iSight in a $200 million deal.

FireEye, which is a member of the billion dollar unicorn club, has come in for a hard time of late around its valuation, with some pundits pointing out that investors were overly bullish on the company and cybersecurity in general following a spate of attacks on corporate companies in recent years. The firm is valued at $2.45 billion based on its current share price, which has been tumbling since last summer.

Regardless, this acquisition will massively increase the Nasdaq-listed company’s intelligence and analysis division.

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FireEye, which regularly puts out reports based on the data it gathers while helping to defend its customers, said that iSight has 350 staff, including over 250 “cyber threat intelligence experts” spread across 17 countries worldwide. In addition, it has invested some $100 million to date to develop its cyberattack tracking and analysis capabilities, FireEye said.

“This acquisition extends FireEye’s intelligence lead with an offering no one else in the industry can match,” David DeWalt, FireEye CEO and chairman of the board, commented in a statement.

“The biggest mistake most people make is thinking threat intelligence is a collection of virus definitions in a shared database. Forward-looking security organizations — from governments to the private sector — know threat intelligence is the key to establishing a robust security posture tuned for the threats targeting each organization,” DeWalt added, seemingly in response to those with bearish inclinations on the industry.

While the deal is undoubtedly a win for FireEye, which provides cyber threat tracking and security services for enterprises via its Mandiant business, the exit is far different to that which iSight had envisaged as recently as last year. The firm had planned an IPO in late 2016 at a valuation of over $1 billion. It’s unclear what caused the to change course and sell to FireEye.

FireEye is offering iSight shareholders an addition $75 million in cash and equity if the business can hit unspecified targets before the second quarter of 2018, but even if that does happen, $285 million does not maketh a billion.