Google reached a deal to acquire cybersecurity firm Mandiant for $5.4 billion.
With the Mandiant acquisition, Google aims to bolster its cloud unit with more cybersecurity offerings in order to protect businesses across industries who have seen an increase in attacks on their systems, according to a March 8 press release.
"Organizations around the world are facing unprecedented cybersecurity challenges as the sophistication and severity of attacks that were previously used to target major governments are now being used to target companies in every industry," Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said in the press release.
Google intends to retain Madiant's brand but will integrate it into its Google Cloud unit, The Wall Street Journal said March 8, drawing insights from Mandiant's threat research and how it applies security solutions to its products.
Mandiant is known for publishing detailed reports about malicious cyber campaigns and identifying the likely nation-state sponsors of the intrusions. United States intelligence agencies have come to rely on the insights provided by Mandiant.
The deal is expected to close later this year.