Mandiant Mum On Microsoft Rumors, Touts New Channel Tools

‘That [the channel] is not an area that we’ve done great in the past on, but I think we feel pretty good about some of the new offerings and some of the new focus areas there,’ says Mandiant CFO Frank Verdecanna.

Mandiant said it’s trying to build new products that fit the channel and once again declined to comment on reports that Microsoft is pursuing an acquisition.

“As a matter of policy, we’re not going to comment on rumors or speculation,” Mandiant CEO Kevin Mandia told investors during an earnings call late Tuesday. Mandia similarly declined to comment on Bloomberg’s Microsoft acquisition report when speaking with CRN earlier in the afternoon, saying, “We run this company like it’s ours forever, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

From a partner perspective, Mandiant said it has pivoted to making its new offerings fit the channel much better than some of its previous offerings that were more focused on security professionals, according to Chief Financial Officer Frank Verdecanna. The Reston, Va.-based threat intelligence vendor is trying to build products that can go down market and are easier to deploy, Verdecanna said.

[Related: Microsoft Eyes Mandiant Buy In Threat Intelligence Megadeal: Report]

“If you look at where we’re at from a channel leverage perspective, we only have a significant opportunity ahead of us,” Verdecanna said. “That’s not an area that we’ve done great in the past on, but I think we feel pretty good about some of the new offerings and some of the new focus areas there and some of the investments we’re making in the channel.”

Third-party integrations such as the ones inked in recent months with Microsoft and SentinelOne will be key to Mandiant’s success going forward, with Mandia saying the company’s historic inability to support endpoint security tools other than FireEye was the top reason it lost managed detection and response (MDR) clients. These new integrations will help Mandiant protect its existing client base and grow faster.

Mandia acknowledged that some endpoint security vendors have their own MDR and XDR offerings that compete with Mandiant, and he said the company will pursue memorandums of understand and go-to-market alignment with vendors where there’s less competition. But Mandia said the company’s services and expertise give it a unique advantage over more product-centric or technology-centric competitors.

“No one’s going to build the global intelligence capability that we have,” Mandia said. “I don’t think a controls provider or platform provider is going to have what we have because we have the privilege of showing up when their stuff didn‘t work. That’s what incident response is. So if there‘s a way to circumvent a platform, we’re the first ones to see it.”

Mandiant sales for the quarter ended Dec. 31 surged to $132.9 million, up 20.5 percent from $110.2 million a year earlier. That edged out Seeking Alpha’s revenue projection of $131.6 million.

The company recorded net income of $1.1 billion, or $4.65 per diluted share, up from a net loss of $44.3 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, the year prior due to the FireEye products sale. On a non-GAAP basis, the company recorded a net loss of $20.7 million, or $0.09 per share, down from net income of $28.3 million, or $0.12 per share, last year. That beat Seeking Alpha’s net loss estimate of $0.13 per share.

Mandiant’s stock is up $0.29 (1.63 percent) to $18.04 in after-hours trading Tuesday. That’s the highest the company’s stock has traded since Nov. 16, 2021.

On a full-year basis, Mandiant’s revenue jumped to $483.5 million, up 21 percent from $399.7 million the year prior. The company recorded net income of $918.6 million, or $3.81 per diluted share, up from a net loss of $207.3 million, or $0.95 per diluted share, due to the FireEye products sales.

In the most recent quarter, the company’s platform, cloud subscription and managed services revenue leapfrogged to $66.9 million, up 17.9 percent from $56.7 million last year. And Mandiant’s professional services revenue catapulted to $66 million, up 23.3 percent from $53.5 million the year prior.

In the quarter ended March 31, Mandiant expects to record a non-GAAP net loss of between $0.13 and $0.15 per share on sales of between $128 million and $131 million.