In a much-anticipated move, FireEye has filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its common stock.
While the number of shares to be sold and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined, the company could raise up to $175 million, according to the statement filed Aug. 2.
Earlier this year FireEye announced its next-generation threat protection platform to detect new and increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks.
FireEye’s platform creates a cross-enterprise threat protection “fabric” using a next-generation threat detection engine and dynamic threat intelligence to enable rapid detection, validation, and response to cyber-attacks.
FireEye, as explained by the company in its S-1 filing, has developed purpose-built, virtual machine-based security platform, the core of which its virtual execution, or MVX, engine, identifies and protects against known and unknown threats that existing signature-based technologies are unable to detect.
The security firm claims that in over 95% of its prospective customer evaluations, it found incidents of advanced threats that were conducting malicious activities and that successfully evaded the prospective customers’ existing security infrastructure, including traditional firewalls, next-generation firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, anti-virus software, email security and Web filtering appliances.
As of the end of June, FireEye claimed over 1,100 customers across more than 40 countries, including over 100 of the Fortune 500.
In 2012, the company had revenue of $83.3 million, up from 2011 revenue of $33.7 million, representing year-over-year growth of 148%. The company had net losses of $16.8 million in 2011 and $35.8 million in 2012.
In 2012, revenue by region was 80% in the US, EMEA at 8%, APAC at 8%, and other regions totaled 4%.
After going public, the company plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including adding headcount, working capital, sales and marketing activities, product development, general and administrative matters, and capital expenditures.
FireEye also said it may use a portion of the IPO proceeds to acquire, or investment in, technologies, solutions or businesses that complement its business.
The company was founded in 2005 by Ashar Aziz who served Chief Executive Officer until November 2012, and was followed by David DeWalt who previously served as president and CEO at McAfee from April 2007 until February 2011, after Intel’s surprise $7.68 billion acquisition of McAfee.
Aziz currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Strategy Officer.
Former Symantec CEO, Enrique Salem, was also appointed to the FireEye board of directors in February 2013.
In early 2013, FireEye announced that it had raised $50 million in venture funding, an amount that brought the total amount raised by the company to over $100 million.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Barclays Capital will act as lead joint book-running managers for the offering, and BofA Merrill Lynch and UBS Securities will act as other book-running managers for the offering. Nomura Securities International will also act as a co-manager for the offering, the company said.
The company has not yet said what stock exchange it plans to list with.
