LONDON, UK: Alphabet Inc’s Google is shopping for cybersecurity agency Mandiant Inc for $5.4 billion.
A shift to distant working throughout the pandemic, in addition to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, has fueled a spike in cyberattacks and bolstered demand for safety software, a market anticipated to greater than double to $352.25 billion by 2026 from 2020, in accordance to analysis agency Mordor Intelligence.
The deal will improve Google’s cloud computing business, which generates greater than $19 billion annually, and beef up its safety operations and advisory services.
Google’s $23 per share offer represents a premium of about 53% to Mandiant’s inventory price ranges earlier than reports emerged of Microsoft eyeing a deal. Mandiant shares were down 3% in morning buying and selling on Tuesday, whereas Alphabet edged up 0.5%.
Mandiant, which focuses on cyber-incident response and cybersecurity testing, became a standalone entity final year after acquirer FireEye Inc sold its merchandise enterprise and the FireEye name for $1.2 billion to a consortium led by private fairness agency Symphony Technology Group.
In including extra cybersecurity services, Google is attempting to distinguish its cloud computing enterprise from that of Amazon and Microsoft. The rival companies have had a bigger share of the cloud marketplace for leasing servers, computing energy and web services to different companies.
The acquisition of Mandiant, which is based in Virginia and has greater than 2,300 employees, is Google’s second-largest deal ever, trailing solely the company’s $12.5 acquisition of the phone agency Motorola that was introduced in 2011, in accordance to Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.
The deal is probably going to attract antitrust scrutiny. Authorities within the United States and European Union have pledged to look extra closely at acquisitions made by Google and different tech giants.