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 FireEye said on Monday it wants to start selling the new products by
the middle of this year, adding to its existing technology that
helps protect computers from infection by tainted messages and
malicious websites.
The intrusion prevention systems (IPS) market totaled nearly $1.9
billion in 2012, according to market research firm IDC. That is
nearly 10 times the size of the market for specialized threat
analysis and protection technology, for which FireEye is best known.
"They are really working to broaden their addressable market," said
John Grady, an analyst with IDC who was briefed by FireEye on the
new IPS technology.
Besides Cisco and Palo Alto Networks, other players in the IPS
market include Intel Corp and Trend Micro Inc, according to Grady.
FireEye has been aggressively expanding since it went public last
year in one of the hottest U.S. stock market debuts. Its shares have
nearly quadrupled since September 2013 and jumped 8.65 percent to
close at $78.85 on Monday on the Nasdaq.
In December, FireEye purchased cyber forensics and security software
firm Mandiant Corp for about $1 billion. The company is best known
for uncovering a Chinese military unit believed to be behind a
series of hacking attacks on U.S. companies.
Entering the IPS market is part of FireEye Chief Executive Dave
DeWalt's strategy of developing a technology platform that customers
can use to run a variety of products to protect their networks from
cyber attacks.
When he was named CEO in November 2012, FireEye's technology was
well regarded by industry analysts, but many described it as a
provider of a niche product that companies needed to bolt on to
software and equipment from bigger security firms.
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Adding new product lines could help the company achieve
profitability. FireEye has reported large losses over the past year
as DeWalt spent heavily to build a global sales force to market its
products.
"They continue to add more notches on their product belt," said FBR
analyst Daniel Ives. "Combined with Mandiant, they're front and
center to really be one of the main consolidators in terms of
overall (security) spending, to gain more of a share of the overall
budgets."
FireEye posted an operating loss of $111 million in the first nine
months of last year, though revenue more than doubled from a year
earlier to $104 million.
In addition to the IPS product, FireEye also plans to unveil tools
to analyze security events and describe how it has incorporated
Mandiant's threat detection software into its platform, according to
a company spokesman.
When asked if other acquisitions are in the works, DeWalt said by
email that the company would "be opportunistic with future
acquisitions as the need arises."
(Additional reporting by Noel Randewich
in San Francisco; editing by Tiffany Wu and Grant McCool)
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