Google agreed to purchase cybersecurity company Mandiant Inc. for $5.4 billion , adding internet security products that will bolster the technology giant’s cloud-computing business as it takes on larger rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Corp.
Under Thomas Kurian, who took over as the cloud division’s chief executive officer in 2019, Google has aggressively pursued new business, working to make the service more reliable and revamping its partnerships to engineer bespoke projects for more clients. He brushed off concerns that the regulatory review process may be a long slog, saying that the deal enhances competition in cybersecurity and suggesting it will pose a more serious challenge to Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft.
The deal “shows Google’s commitment to becoming a viable, competitive security vendor,” said Neil MacDonald, a research vice president at Gartner Inc. The biggest recent cybersecurity deal was private equity giant Thoma Bravo LLC’s purchase of Proofpoint for $12.3 billion last year, followed by NortonLifeLock Inc.’s purchase of Avast Plc in a deal valued at as much as $8.6 billion.
“What excited Mandiant about this partnership with Google is we can scale our expertise and intel at Google scale to secure the cloud, and we also can automate our expertise,” Mandia said. The company can automate more by applying data about the threats some organizations are facing to defend others, he added.