FireEye Expands into Utah

Pete CodellaNews, Tax Credits

FireEye a leader in advanced threat protection headquartered in California, is expanding into Utah. Today, along with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) and Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah), the company announced an expansion that is expected to bring approximately 250 new jobs to Salt Lake County.

FireEye is the leader in stopping a new breed of cyber attacks, such as advanced malware, that easily bypass traditional signature-based defenses and compromise enterprise networks. The FireEye solutions supplement traditional and next-generation firewalls, IPS, anti-virus, and gateways, which cannot stop advanced threats, leaving security holes in networks. FireEye offers the industry’s only solution that detects and blocks attacks across both Web and email threat vectors as well as latent malware resident on file shares.

The company recently raised $50 million in venture capital from such major financial firms as Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Juniper Networks. FireEye CEO Dave DeWalt, formerly the CEO of McAfee, helped McAfee become a leader in its segment and sold the company to Intel for $7.6 billion.

FireEye has entered into an agreement with the state that is expected to bring more than $14 million in new state tax revenue and approximately $152 million in new state wages over the lifetime of the agreement. These wages are anticipated to be at least 125 percent of Salt Lake County’s average annual wage including benefits. FireEye expects to invest more than $2 million in a new facility. Currently the company has not finalized a specific location for that facility.

“We are very happy to be locating our Americas customer support group in Utah,” said Tony Kolish, FireEye senior vice president, customer services. “With a talented technical workforce and favorable business environment, Utah offers an excellent location for FireEye to put a technical customer support center.”

“Utah’s economy and its IT and Software industry is continually being recognized internationally as one of the most vibrant business communities in the US. FireEye will now be a part of Utah’s dynamic growth which has seen such companies as Adobe, eBay, IM Flash, and most recently Vivint in the headlines reporting their spectacular growth in Utah,” GOED executive director Spencer Eccles said.

“FireEye’s decision to expand in the State is another example of Utah’s ability to attract industry leaders in the IT/Cybersecurity sector,” said Jeff Edwards, president & CEO of EDCUtah. “This expansion demonstrates how Utah’s quality workforce and business-friendly environment continue to attract high-paying, state-of-the-art technical jobs to the State.”

The GOED Board of Directors has approved a post-performance Economic Development Tax Increment Financing refundable tax credit (EDTIF) of $3,603,155, or 25 percent of the new state revenue paid by the company over the 10 year life of the agreement.