IronNet Inc., the cybersecurity firm founded by former National Security Agency director and retired Army Gen. Keith Alexander, made its way Friday to the New York Stock Exchange after closing its merger with special purpose acquisition company LGL Systems Acquisition Corp.
The merger, which was approved by LGL’s board and stockholders on Thursday, effectively launched the McLean cybersecurity’s initial public offering Friday under the ticker "IRNT."
“We are excited to complete this business combination, which will position IronNet to truly transform and scale cyber defense for more organizations around the world,” Alexander said in a statement. “As a public company, we intend to apply our increased financial resources to accelerate product innovation for our customers and expand our portfolio of offerings.”
It marks a heady rise for the company, which was started in 2014 by Alexander, who serves as co-CEO alongside Bill Welch, a former chief operating officer of cloud security company ZScaler Inc.
IronNet provides a range of cybersecurity services umbrellaed under its "collective defense" offerings. Collective defense utilizes artificial intelligence-driven network detection and response to monitor network traffic and alert of anomalous threats with automation.
It then shares anonymous data of those threats with peers on its collaboration platform to help track and thwart any potential attack.
The SPAC merger with LGL emerged in March, then projecting an equity value of about $1.2 billion. The initial merger raised $267 million in net proceeds, with $125 million coming from private investors.
The stock opened Friday at $13.44 and was trading above $17 for much of the middle of the day before closing at $12.59, down 6.32%.
