Security giant FireEye has bought threat company iSight Partners for US$200 million, marking a notable consolidation in the sector.

It brings the threat intel company, notable for its research into sophisticated and nation-state attacks, into the fold of the network security mammoth.

FireEye will pay another $75 million in cash and stock should second quarter 2018 sales targets be met under the deal closed 14 January.

ISight chief executive officer John Watters said last August that he hoped to win a US$1 billion valuation in a 2016 initial public offering.

FireEye says iSIGHT customers will still have access to their iSIGHT products while it will add intelligence subscription models for specific verticals, similar to that offered with Visa. The company will immediately feed threat intelligence into its ecosystem refreshing every hour.

iSIGHT employs some 350 staff of which more than 250 are in the threat intelligence game, and has invested $100 million over eight years to build its capabilities. It is unknown if redundancies or staff changes are planned.

FireEye chief executive officer David DeWalt says people are mistaken if they consider threat intelligence a collection of virus definitions in a database.

"Forward-looking security organisations - from governments to the private sector - know threat intelligence is the key to establishing a robust security posture tuned for the threats targeting each organisation," DeWalt said in a statement.

"As the cyber operations become integrated with physical, geopolitical and competitive conflict, an intelligence-led approach to security will be key in detecting the most sophisticated threats and responding to them quickly and effectively." ®