Symantec is without doubt the leading operate in the security supplying space on a global level and over the past decade or so, it has firmly established itself as the biggest security supplying company in the worldy. The revenues of the company have grown steadily over the years and it was only a matter of time before the company would start making big ticket acquisitions that would further consolidate its position at the top of the tree in the industry in which it operates. In a new development, the company has decided to acquire Blue Moat, a company that specialises in network protection for $4.6 billion. The acquisition makes it one of the most important acquisitions that has ever been made by Symantec and according to many industry experts, it will only help the company in becoming even stronger.
Greg Clark, the CEO of Blue Moat will take over as the CEO of Symantec from Mike Brown following the deal. After the completion of the deal, Greg Clark said, "Once combined, we will offer customers around the world - from large enterprises and governments to individual consumers - unrivaled threat protection and unmatched cloud security," It is interesting to note that Blue Moat has changed hands twice in as many years with jump in valuation. Bain Capital had acquired the company for $2.4 billion in 2015 and the latest sale means that they are going to take home a handsome profit on their investment.
An article on FORBES pointed out the finer points of the deal, "Though the combined company would have registered $4.4 billion in revenues in fiscal year 2016, both have felt the pain of an increasingly competitive security market. Symantec has been forced into making numerous structural changes over the last half decade in the face of increased competition from aggressive younger firms, such as Palo Alto Networks, FireEye, CrowdStrike and Cylance.In its fourth quarter earnings report from May, Symantec said it expected revenues to continue to fall across its enterprise and consumer divisions. Revenue for the quarter was $873 million, down six per cent year-on-year."
