While many of our readers might think that FireEye was a brilliant show which was cancelled by Fox too early, it turns out that the security company is doing rather well. FireEye this week acquired Mandiant, the computer forensics specialist best known for discovering the Chinese military unit believed to be behind a series of hacking attacks on US companies.

FireEye shares jumped more than 20 percent after Thursday's announcement of the $1.05 billion cash-and-stock deal. It unites two companies with relatively new technologies for dealing with cyber-attacks. The new firm has two of the most-respected executives in the security industry: FireEye CEO Dave DeWalt and Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia.

FireEye's cloud-based systems for detecting malicious software and Mandiant's software that analyzes cyber attacks have been doing well while traditional security companies have done less well.

About a year ago, the two companies entered into a technology development agreement that made it easier to deploy their products together. With the merger, FireEye will gain Mandiant's team of forensics investigators. FireEye, which has yet to post a profit, said the acquisition will be immediately accretive to earnings and expects the combined company's revenue to grow about 50 percent this year.