Symantec is reportedly planning to break up the company into two entities to carry out major operations of security and storage in separate orders.
Symantec, the renowned anti-virus company, is reportedly planning to hive off its security and storage business into two separate entities, sources familiar with the company's plans told Bloomberg. If true, the security company will be the latest to join the giants like eBay and Hewlett-Packard that have announced a split-up. By splitting into two, Symantec will dedicate one of its entity for selling security programs and another one for data storage.
The news of Symantec's break up is still a rumor but people in the knowhow of the company's plans said the security firm is in advanced talks to split up its business. An official announcement of the breakup was expected in the coming weeks, one of the sources said.
Symantec gained immense success with its Norton Antivirus programs in the early 1990s. But the recent attacks on companies like JPMorgan and Target have put the security business in trouble. The company has also been struggling to boost its revenue in the last few quarters, but cost cuts have helped generate earnings, CNET reported.
This isn't the first time Symantec has explored ways to split the company. Earlier plans did not get approval from its CEOs at the time, Enrique Salem (2009-2012) and Steve Bennett (2012-2014). After Bennett's departure from the company in March due to plummeting sales, the board made interim chief Michael Brown the permanent CEO. According to one of Bloomberg's sources, Brown is supporting the company's breakup.
In the split-up news, eBay announced last week that it will separate its PayPal business and HP said Monday that it will split into half with one company looking after the enterprise market and the other will cover the PC and printing business.
Symantec's breakup will make it an acquisition target, with giants like EMC and HP eyeing standalone security business and an independent storage business, the report added.
