Symantec said it would acquire U.S. identity theft protection services company LifeLock for $2.3 billion, in a deal that it hopes will prop up sales at its Norton cybersecurity unit.<\/p>\n
Symantec\u2019s security software often comes bundled with personal computers. As a result, the company has suffered as consumers use mobile devices more than traditional computers. While Norton remains profitable, its sales have been falling.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Norton) had been declining with the declines in PC market share. This acquisition brings $660 million in revenue to the consumer business and returns it to longer sustainable growth,\u201d Symantec Chief Executive Greg Clark said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Reuters was first to report earlier on Sunday that Symantec was in the lead to acquire LifeLock.<\/p>\n
Symantec\u2019s purchase of LifeLock is in line with its efforts to diversify its offerings. In August, it bought Blue Coat Inc, which helps firms maintain security over the internet, in a $4.65 billion deal. Clark previously held the top job at Blue Coat, and made the switch after the deal closed.<\/p>\n
Based in Tempe, Arizona, LifeLock offers services such as monitoring new account openings and credit-related applications in order to alert consumers about unauthorized use of their identity. It also works with government agencies, merchants and creditors to remediate the impact of identity theft.<\/p>\n
Fran Rosch, executive vice president of Norton Business Unit, said that Symantec had dabbled in identity security but had nowhere near Lifelock\u2019s 4.4 million members.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to extend our value proposition. It was a no brainer for us to get back to growth,\u201d Rosch said.<\/p>\n
Symantec expects to finance the transaction with cash on balance sheet and $750 million of new debt.<\/p>\n
The Mountain View, California-based company has been moving away from what is sees as more commoditized services, selling its data storage business Veritas in January to private equity firm Carlyle Group LP <CG.O> for $7.4 billion. Technology-focused firm Silver Lake Partners has also made a $1 billion investment in the company in two parts this year.<\/p>\n
Symantec said the LifeLock deal is not expected to have a material impact on its financial results next year, and reaffirmed its fiscal year 2017 and 2018 guidance. The deal also represents a victory for activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, which had pushed LifeLock to explore its options.<\/p>\n
Symantec was advised by Citigroup and JP Morgan, along with Bank of America, Barclays Plc , and Wells Fargo. LifeLock was advised by Goldman Sachs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Venture Beat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Symantec said it would acquire U.S. identity theft protection services company LifeLock for $2.3 billion, in a deal that it hopes will prop up sales at its Norton cybersecurity unit. Symantec\u2019s security software often comes bundled with personal computers. As a result, the company has suffered as consumers use mobile devices more than traditional computers. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":270441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[8488,13796,13797,13798,5468],"class_list":["post-270440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-anti-virus","tag-antivirus","tag-california-software","tag-norton-anti-virus","tag-symantec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=270440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=270440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=270440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=270440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}