FireEye snaps up cyber forensics firm Mandiant for $1 billion cash-stock deal

Security vendor FireEye today announced it has acquired privately-held endpoint security incident response vendor Mandiant for $1 billion with $106.5 million in cash.

FireEye and Mandiant said they intend to integrate Mandiant’s portfolio of products with FireEye’s  to develop new enterprise and cloud products and services. For one thing, FireEye said Mandiant’s endpoint threat detection and response products will be incorporated as a core element of the FireEye Oculus platform. FireEye’s CEO Dave DeWalt says the goal is to develop comprehensive products aimed at combating advanced threats that are stealthy attacks on organizations.

+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD What to expect of Internet of Things in 2014 | Washington Post reports servers attacked, Chinese espionage suspected+

Network World - Security vendor FireEye today announced it has acquired privately-held endpoint security incident response vendor Mandiant for $1 billion with $106.5 million in cash.

FireEye and Mandiant said they intend to integrate Mandiant’s portfolio of products with FireEye’s  to develop new enterprise and cloud products and services. For one thing, FireEye said Mandiant’s endpoint threat detection and response products will be incorporated as a core element of the FireEye Oculus platform. FireEye’s CEO Dave DeWalt says the goal is to develop comprehensive products aimed at combating advanced threats that are stealthy attacks on organizations.

+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD What to expect of Internet of Things in 2014 | Washington Post reports servers attacked, Chinese espionage suspected+

Mandiant has become known for forensic work it has done to assist a wide variety of companies, including large media organizations such as the Washington Post, determine how their networks have been attacked, often for purposes of cyber-espionage. Kevin Mandia, Mandiant’s founder and CEO, has been appointed by the FireEye board of directors to the position of senior vice president and chief operating office at FireEye. FireEye indicated it now provides its threat-protection software to more than 1,500 government, enterprise and small to mid-sized customers.

Ellen Messmer is senior editor at Network World, an IDG website, where she covers news and technology trends related to information security. Twitter: MessmerE. E-mail: emessmer@nww.com

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Private equity firm Advent offers $1.58 billion cash for UNIT4

AMSTERDAM Mon Nov 18, 2013 7:54am EST

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Advent International offered 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion) to take UNIT4 (UNI4.AS) private, which the Dutch business software firm said would help it speed up expansion without the pressures of being listed on the stock market.

UNIT4 shares jumped more than 8 percent to a high of 38.18 euros on Monday, just short of the 38.75 euro per share cash offer from Advent, a private equity firm that invests in technology and software businesses.

Advent's offer represents a 32 percent premium to UNIT4's shares on October 11, before the company said it had been approached by potential buyers.

The Dutch company, which competes with firms such as Germany's SAP (SAPG.DE) and U.S.-based Oracle Corp (ORCL.N), and Workday Inc (WDAY.N), provides cloud computing and other business software services - known as SaaS - for private and public-sector customers.

UNIT4 counts utility EDF Energy (EDF.PA), the City of Oslo and SEUR, the leading express courier firm in Spain and Portugal among its clients, according to its website.

"UNIT4 has the opportunity to become a global leader in mid-market ERP (enterprise resource planning)," Fred Wakeman, Managing Partner of Advent, said in a statement.

The company has more than 4,300 employees in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa, and reported EBITDA (earnings before deduction of interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization) of 86.2 million euros on revenue of 469.8 million euros last year.

UNIT4 said Advent's offer values it at 18.1 times EBITDA adjusted for capitalized research and development costs and investments in FinancialForce.com, a cloud applications company.

Similar deals in the sector were done at lower multiples of between 11 and 15, said Oppenheimer Managing Director and head of EMEA Technology & Telecoms Investment Banking, Xavier Moreels. Oppenheimer advised UNIT4.

SHORT-TERM PAIN

Advent has been investing in technology and software businesses for more than 20 years, and its current portfolio includes KMD, one of Denmark's largest IT and software companies.

Last month it also acquired U.S.-based P2 Energy Solutions, a provider of software and data to the oil and gas industry.

UNIT4 said it needed more investment to expand its cloud computing and Saas business, a move that would initially hit revenue and profitability and would be easier to carry out away from the stock market where pressure from investors for short-term results would likely hurt its shares.

Companies are increasingly turning to cloud computing - an umbrella term for technology services offered remotely via the Internet instead of on-site - to cut costs and add flexibility to their IT departments.

The billing structure for cloud computing is basically subscription-based, Chris Ouwinga, UNIT4 founder and co-chief executive, told reporters on a conference call.

"That would defer a large part of our revenue and as a result the profitability would be hit in the shorter term, in the first couple of years. In order to make that transition, it is easier to work in a private setting," he said.

While UNIT4 recommended Advent's offer to shareholders, it also left the door open to substantially higher offers. But some analysts said a rival bid was unlikely.

"The likelihood for a higher bid is ... small, as there has already been a structured sale process," said Rabobank analysts Hans Slob and Frank Claassen in a note to clients, describing Advent's offer as fair.

ING and Oppenheimer are financial advisors to UNIT4, while ABN AMRO is independent financial advisor to UNIT4's supervisory board, and Goldman Sachs is financial advisor to Advent.

($1 = 0.7421 euros)

(Reporting by Sara Webb, additional reporting by Kylie MacLellan in London; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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Aberdeen buys Scottish Widows from Lloyds for $1 billion

By Chris Vellacott and Matt Scuffham

LONDON Mon Nov 18, 2013 4:37am EST

A pedestrian is seen passing the head office of the Lloyds Banking Group in central London in this August 5, 2009 file photograph.

Credit: Reuters/Stefan Wermuth/Files

LONDON (Reuters) - Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN.L) bought Lloyds' (LLOY.L) fund management arm Scottish Widows for about 660 million pounds ($1.1 billion) on Monday, making it Europe's No. 1 listed stand-alone fund manager.

Aberdeen will pay with shares worth about 560 million pounds, or 9.9 percent of the company, Lloyds said, and assets under management will rise to 336 billion from 200 billion. Lloyds has agreed a one-year lock-up on the shareholding.

It will also pay 100 million pounds in cash over five years depending on how well Aberdeen manages various Lloyds assets.

Aberdeen shares rose more than 13 percent.

Analysts at Numis said the deal looked well priced for Aberdeen but they want to "seek clarity" on how much of Scottish Widow's assets will stay put and on the lock-up.

For Lloyds, the deal lifts its Core Tier 1 capital by 11 basis points from the 9.9 percent reached in the third quarter to a 10-percent target set by Britain's financial watchdog. Lloyds shares rose 0.9 percent.

"We are confident that this transaction will deliver considerable additional value to our expanded client base and this will therefore benefit our shareholders. I am delighted to welcome Lloyds as a major shareholder," Aberdeen Chief Executive Martin Gilbert said in a statement.

Led by Gilbert, Aberdeen has enjoyed a sharp rise in its assets since the financial crisis, buoyed by demand for its global emerging market equities funds and a flurry of acquisitions. Adding Scottish Widow's strength in fixed-income will provide diversification to its equities business.

Lloyds, which is 33 percent state owned, is selling off non-core assets to strengthen its balance sheet and focus on lending to British households and businesses.

It needs to plug an 8.6 billion pound shortfall identified by Britain's financial regulator in June to persuade the regulator to let it start paying dividends again next year.

Aberdeen also released full-year earnings on Monday slightly ahead of market forecasts. Net revenue jumped 24 percent in the year to September 30 to 1.08 billion pounds.

Underlying pre-tax profits came in 39 percent higher, and Aberdeen said it would pay a full year dividend of 16 pence per share, up from 11.5 pence last year.

(Additional reporting by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Pentagon, NASA to spend $44 billion on space launches through 2018: GAO

Tourists take pictures of a NASA sign at the Kennedy Space Center visitors complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida April 14, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 9, 2013 7:42pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department and NASA expect to spend about $44 billion to launch government satellites and other spacecraft over the next five years, including $28 billion in procurement funding, the Government Accountability Office said on Monday.

The GAO, a congressional watchdog agency, said it was difficult to determine exact funding plans because both agencies used different accounting methods, but it arrived at the combined total by analyzing Pentagon and NASA budget documents, and looking at funding from other government agencies.

GAO said the projected funding data was an initial step toward answering a larger request from lawmakers who question the steep cost of space launches, and why efforts to inject more competition have not gotten more traction.

"Defense and civilian government agencies together expect to require significant funding, nearly $44 billion, in 'then-year' dollars that factor in anticipated future inflation, for launch-related activities from fiscal years 2014 through 2018," the agency said in a letter to the investigations subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the investigations subcommittee, and John McCain, the top Republican on the panel, had asked GAO to investigate space launch funding to get a better handle on the overall government effort.

GAO said it would continue to look into the larger question surrounding "impediments to economical procurement of government launch vehicles and launch services."

The Pentagon and NASA have sought in recent years to introduce more competition to the space launch business, which is largely dominated by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, the Pentagon's two largest suppliers.

Orbital Sciences Corp and privately held Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, are trying to break into the market for launching large government satellites into space.

In a letter to the Levin and McCain, GAO said it hoped the aggregated data would help "inform plans to lower launch costs, increase competition, and invest in new programs."

GAO said planned procurement funding of $28 billion accounted for about 65 percent of the total amount through fiscal 2018, with the Pentagon accounting for about $16 billion of that amount.

Combined research, development and testing activities accounted for about $11 billion, or 26 percent, according to the GAO letter. NASA accounts for the lion's share of that projected funding, or $10.5 billion, including about $7 billion on its work on a launch vehicle and the ground systems needed to support human exploration of deep space.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Ken Wills)

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U.S. recovers $4 billion from health-care fraud cases

The government recaptured a record $4 billion last year from pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and other providers of care that defrauded federal health-care programs, the Obama administration reported Monday.

Administration officials also called attention to new federal rules intended to prevent fraud - or detect it early - that took effect Monday as a result of the law enacted last year to overhaul the health-care system.

The annual report arrives as the new Republican leaders in the House are planning congressional investigations, suggesting that the administration is not aggressive in pursuing government waste and fraud.

"We can save $125 billion in simply not giving out money to Medicare recipients that don't exist for procedures that didn't happen," Rep. Darrell E. Issa (R-Calif.), the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said this month. Facing a hostile climate in the House, several senior aides to President Obama heavily touted what Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called "unprecedented work to safeguard taxpayer dollars."

During the fiscal year ended in September, the report says, the government recovered $4.02 billion from fraud cases completed during that year or in the past. That sum compares with $2.6 billion recovered in fiscal 2009 and slightly more than $2 billion in 2008. Nearly three-fourths of the total recouped last year was from fraud against Medicare, the federal health insurance for older Americans. The figures also show that the government won court judgments and out-of-court settlements last year amounting to $2.5 billion, although not all that money has been collected.

According to Justice Department statistics, the number of new criminal and civil investigations of potential health-care fraud, most involving Medicare, increased slightly last year. And the number of defendants convicted of such fraud grew to more than 700 in 2010 from fewer than 600 the previous two years.

Less than a week after the Republican-led House voted to repeal the new health-care law, administration officials continued to focus attention on provisions they think the public will like.

Sebelius pointed out that the new rules authorized by the law, which took effect Monday, require more thorough screenings for health-care workers, companies and institutions that want to participate in Medicare, Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program. And if such participants are accused of fraud, government officials can stop payments to them while they conduct an investigation.

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Chevron grills U.S. lawyer in $19 billion Ecuador pollution case

Gas prices are displayed at a Chevron gas station in Los Angeles, California October 9, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK | Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:45pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chevron Corp on Tuesday sought to persuade a New York federal judge to punish a U.S. lawyer representing Ecuadorean villagers who won a $19 billion environmental damages award, saying the lawyer is withholding documents from the oil company.

In an unusual court proceeding, a Chevron lawyer sharply questioned Steven Donziger, who represents residents of the Lago Agrio region who claim the company is responsible for contamination that sickened people in the Ecuadorean Amazon area.

At issue is the extent to which Donziger and others acted in bad faith by failing to turn over files and documents that Chevron claimed it needed for its case.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan is holding the hearing as part of a 2011 lawsuit in which Chevron accused Donziger and other defendants of racketeering and extortion. That case is scheduled to go to trial in October.

The two-decade fight between Chevron and Lago Agrio residents has included aggressive litigation tactics and accusations of coercion and bribery that each side has denied.

Under questioning from Chevron lawyer Randy Mastro, Donziger denied having directed his Ecuadorean counterpart Pablo Fajardo to keep documents from Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company.

"Mr. Fajardo's view is that responding to your document request would violate Ecuador law," Donziger told Mastro.

Donziger admitted that he lacks access to many documents, including documents stored on Fajardo's computers, and thus could not speak to their importance.

Mastro, meanwhile, sought to discredit Donziger's contention that he worked for Fajardo, not the other way around.

Donziger stands to earn more than $1 billion if the $19 billion judgment were upheld, while Fajardo would make just under one-third that amount, Mastro said.

"So you make more than three times as much as Mr. Fajardo does for working on this case, but you testify that you work for him?" Mastro said.

Chevron's lawyer also introduced other evidence suggesting that Donziger was in fact calling the shots, noting that Fajardo has sometimes called Donziger "Commander."

Donziger said that moniker should be seen "as a term of affection, not as a term of hierarchy."

NO CONTROL?

In 2011, the Lago Agrio plaintiffs won an $18.2 billion judgment in Ecuador, which has since grown to the $19 billion, on claims that San Ramon, California-based Chevron is responsible for contamination of their water and soil.

The environmental damage was supposedly caused by Texaco, which operated in Ecuador from 1964 to 1992. Chevron took on Texaco's liabilities when it bought the company in 2001.

Chevron says the Ecuador ruling is unenforceable. The Ecuadorean residents have yet to collect on the award and are trying to enforce the judgment in countries where Chevron operates.

Donziger has led that charge in the United States. Under questioning from his lawyer, John Keker, he said his authority has been reduced in recent months, furthering his argument that he lacked control to get the documents Chevron wants.

The Lago Agrio plaintiffs "wanted an adviser, not a person in control or in command of their decisions," Donziger said. "It's preposterous to think I can order Pablo Fajardo to turn over his case files to me."

Kaplan regularly chastised lawyers at the hearing for interrupting one another.

"Look Mr. Keker, I'm going to run this courtroom, and you're not going to tell me how," he told Keker, who had objected to what he thought was Mastro's interrupting an answer by Donziger.

Last month, in challenging other rulings by Kaplan, the Lago Agrio plaintiffs urged a federal appeals court to replace him with a different judge, citing his alleged "contempt" for Ecuador and its courts and "ill will" for Donziger.

Chevron won a victory on Monday when U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis recommended the dismissal of counterclaims by Donziger accusing the company of harassment and trying to block enforcement of the judgment.

Kaplan will review the recommendation. The hearing that began on Tuesday is expected to last several days.

The case is Chevron Corp v. Donziger et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-00691.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Martha Graybow and Andrew Hay)

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