FireEye (Nasdaq: FEYE) announced that it will receive a strategic investment worth $400M from investment firm Blackstone and venture capital firm ClearSky.
FireEye said Thursday it will use the proceeds from the Blackstone Tactical Opportunities-led investment to build up its managed services, platform and cloud portfolio and fund strategic growth initiatives, including its acquisition of cybersecurity company Respond Software.
Blackstone and ClearSky will buy $400M of FireEye’s Series A Convertible Preferred Stock at a price of $1,000 per share. The preferred stock will be convertible into shares of FireEye’s common stock at $18 per share.
FireEye will name Viral Patel, a senior managing director at Blackstone, to its board as part of the terms of the investment, which is subject to customary closing conditions.
FireEye also acquired Respond Software through a cash-and-stock transaction worth approximately $186M as part of efforts to expand the delivery of extended detection and response or XDR capabilities to a wider range of clients.
Respond Software is the developer of an XDR engine – Respond Analyst – that helps speed up investigation of and response to cyber threats using cloud-based data science models. As part of the deal, FireEye will integrate Respond Analyst with its Mandiant Advantage threat intelligence platform.
“With Mandiant’s position on the front lines, we know what to look for in an attack, and Respond’s cloud-based machine learning productizes our expertise to deliver faster outcomes and protect more customers,” said FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia. “This creates a learning system with new capabilities that will enable us to expand our Mandiant portfolio and drive new XDR revenue through our Mandiant Advantage platform.”
