Broadcom to Acquire Symantec Enterprise Security Business for $10.7 Billion in Cash

L0ckJaw

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Broadcom to Acquire Symantec Enterprise Security Business for $10.7 Billion in Cash

Chipmaker Broadcom is buying cybersecurity specialist Symantec Corporation's enterprise security business for $10.7 billion in cash, the companies announced Thursday.

The deal signals Broadcom's continued efforts to diversify beyond its main memory-chip business. Symantec (SYMC) is America's largest cybersecurity company. Its anti-virus software helps companies thwart cyber threats across their physical devices and in the cloud.

Previously, Broadcom acquired network equipment maker Brocade in 2017 and enterprise security company CA Technologies in 2018. The company said following the Symantec acquisition in the first quarter of 2020, it expects 29% of its total revenue to come from software, up from a projected 22% in 2019.

Broadcom aims to "build one of the world's leading infrastructure technology companies across hardware and software," CEO Hock Tan said on a call with analysts on Thursday.

The proposed acquisition is still subject to antitrust approval. And it comes just over a year after Broadcom's $117 billion bid for rival Qualcomm was blocked by President Donald Trump over national security concerns.



 
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ForgottenSeer 58943

Norton Consumer products are generally issue prone, and the channel isn't a source of any significant revenue for Symantec. It's a loss leader for them. Also there haven't been a good homogenization from the enterprise to the consumer, like we see with other technologies/vendors. Norton has sort of languished with poor quality updates, lack of bug fixes, compatibility issues, etc. None of which plague the enterprise offerings from Symantec which in general, are viewed as competent, reliable and security products. (Assuming they are managed properly)

Symantec has lost some key players. Watch for layoffs and other things as part of this, and you can sound the horn for Norton, it's not going to end well for Norton.

 
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ForgottenSeer 72227

Well I guess that Broadcom still REALLY wanted Symantec after all. Makes sense IMHO that they only purchased the enterprise stuff and not the consumer stuff, as out of the 2 I am sure the enterprise side of things is their big money maker. Hopefully this won't be another one of those lets destroy what we bought, but unfortunately it will probably happen.

As for Norton, who knows, this could be one of those seems bad now, but maybe turn out better. Stranger things do happen at times, but my guess is another company will probably come along an purchase the Norton side of things, or maybe they will go their own way.

I'm guessing this could mean Norton home products may no longer be able to use Symantecs technology? Talk about Karma.

It is a little comical, but I guess that there could always be something in there where they are "licensing" the technology, from them. Similar how other vendors licence Bitdefender/Avira engines. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens, but as I've said above, who knows, it may turn out better than we think it will end.
 
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Burrito

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Yeah, the Symantec name will probably go away for the consumer/small business company. As stated, it will probably just be 'Norton Lifelock.'

The two business entities will share patents and the global threat network.

The consumer/small business portion of the company brought in more revenue than the enterprise portion brought in. So the purchase price indicates that the remaining company has significant value. The sale price of $10B+ just for the enterprise element demonstrates the value of the asset. For comparison, Webfroot which actually had more consumer customers at that time was sold in whole for $619M (Verse $10B just for Symantec enterprise).

For Clarity--

-The consumer/small business element has greater revenue and profit than the enterprise element. And it has greater projected revenue and profit.

As I indicated in this forum previously, there was instability because Symantec wanted to be purchased. Symantec's self-sale mode was a byproduct of the distorted American capitalism model. The sell of itself created a huge windfall for key execs and investors. They all got a big payoff. Carbon Black is now reportedly trying to sell itself.... and again, the big investors and key execs want a big payday.

The way this all went down was one of the few ways that the consumer Norton products could survive and do well.

There will be an initial layoff of employees. So this is obviously not good.

But overall, for Norton users -- this is good news. The enterprise business was the laggard and was projected to not do so well because of the multitude of market entrants. The consumer business is now rid of it... and can move on.
 
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