FireEye raises $50 million as it prepares for possible 2013 IPO

BOSTON (Reuters) - Cyber security firm FireEye Inc, which named former McAfee Chief Executive Dave DeWalt as its CEO in November, said it has raised $50 million in new financing as it prepares for a possible initial public offering this year.

FireEye sells technology that helps businesses protect themselves against malicious software that gets past traditional anti-virus programs sold by companies including Symantec Corp (SYMC.O) and McAfee.

The firm said on Thursday that it had raised an additional $50 million in venture funding from new and existing investors including Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Juniper Networks Inc (JNPR.N) and Silicon Valley Bank.

FireEye had raised $51 million in prior financing rounds, according to a company spokesman.

The company also named six new executives on Thursday.

In November, when DeWalt was named CEO, he told Reuters that FireEye had "a high chance" of going public in 2013.

DeWalt resigned as president of McAfee in 2011 after engineering the sale of the company to chipmaker Intel Corp (INTC.O) for $7.7 billion.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)