By Ezequiel Minaya 

Symantec Corp. said Thursday that private-equity firm Silver Lake would make a $500 million investment in the cybersecurity company and add one of its managing partners to Symantec's board.

Shares of Symantec jumped 8.6% to $20.83 in after-hours trading.

With the move, Symantec's board has agreed to boost the company's so-called capital-return program to $5.5 billion, returning all of the proceeds to shareholders from the recent sale of its Veritas data-storage and recovery business.

That will happen through a new $500 million accelerated stock-buyback program, a $4-a-share special dividend and $2.3 billion in additional stock buybacks. The program is slated to be completed March 2017. Symantec also unveiled that it aims to reach $400 million in cost savings by the end of fiscal 2018.

Silver Lake will make its investment by buying $500 million of notes due 2021 with an initial conversion price of $21 a share. Symantec sees that sale being completed in early March.

Ken Hao, managing partner of Silver Lake, will be named to Symantec's board, bringing the number of directors to 10.

Symantec in August agreed to sell its Veritas data-storage and recovery business to investors led by private-equity firm Carlyle Group LP for $8 billion. Last month, Carlyle Group, however, cut its offer to $7.4 billion citing unspecified and emerging "uncertainties."

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 04, 2016 17:15 ET (22:15 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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