By Gillian Tan And Dana Mattioli
Symantec Corp. is exploring a sale of its Veritas data-storage
and recovery business, according to people familiar with the
matter, as it moves forward with a plan to split into two publicly
traded companies.
The cybersecurity company in recent weeks has contacted
private-equity firms and possible industry bidders about buying
Veritas, the people said. The business could fetch more than $8
billion in a sale, one of the people said.
Symantec, which in the late 1980s pioneered computer security
with its antivirus software, last year announced that it would
split its cybersecurity and information-management businesses into
two publicly traded companies. In January, it said that the
information-management company would be named Veritas Technologies
Corp.
The company is considering a sale of Veritas as an alternative
to the split, the people said. There is no guarantee that a deal
will be done, and taxes related to separating Veritas from its
parent through a sale could be an obstacle, they added.
"We are on track to separate Veritas and Symantec into two
independently traded companies by the end of the calendar year--one
focused on information management and one focused on security,"
Symantec spokeswoman Kristen Batch said in an email.
Symantec bought Veritas in 2005 in an all-stock deal valued
around $13.5 billion. Veritas provides a suite of information
backup and recovery, storage management, disaster recovery and
archiving products that are used by 75% of the Fortune 500,
according to Symantec's website.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Symantec has struggled to shift its
consumer-security business to subscriptions from one-time license
sales. In March 2014, the company fired Chief Executive Steve
Bennett, the second CEO it ousted in less than two years.
Symantec announced the plan at a time when several other
corporate titans were planning spinoffs. Hewlett-Packard Co. last
year said it would split into two companies, and eBay Inc.
announced that it would spin off its PayPal unit.
Write to Gillian Tan at gillian.tan@wsj.com and Dana Mattioli at
dana.mattioli@wsj.com
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