Security software maker Symantec Corp. (SYMC) said Thursday that its Board of Directors has approved a plan to separate the company into two, independent publicly traded companies: one business focused on security and one business focused on information management.
"As the security and storage industries continue to change at an accelerating pace, Symantec's security and IM businesses each face unique market opportunities and challenges. It has become clear that winning in both security and information management requires distinct strategies, focused investments and go-to market innovation," said Michael Brown, Symantec president and chief executive officer.
The company's security business, which includes the Norton antivirus software, generated revenue of $4.2 billion in fiscal year 2014. The security business will include: consumer and enterprise endpoint security; endpoint management; encryption; mobile; Secure Socket Layer Certificates; user authentication; mail, web and data center security; data loss prevention; hosted security; and managed security services.
Symantec's information management business, which generated revenue of $2.5 billion in fiscal year 2014, will include: backup and recovery; archiving; eDiscovery; storage management; and information availability solutions.
Brown will be the President and CEO of Symantec and Thomas Seifert will continue to serve as chief financial officer. John Gannon will be General Manager of the new information management business and Don Rath will be its acting chief financial officer.
The Mountain View, California-based company expects to complete the spinoff by the end of December 2015.
Symantec had in April reportedly hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. to explore strategic options immediately after Brown was named interim CEO following the terminations of Steve Bennett after two year at the helm. Brown joined the Symantec board after the company's merger with data-storage maker Veritas Software Corp. in July 2005.
Symantec is the third major technology company to announce plans to split up lately. Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) on Monday announced plans to split into two new independent publicly traded companies, comprising Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and HP, Inc. It will spin-off the personal computer and printers businesses into a separate entity, with the corporate hardware and services businesses being the other entity.
EBay, Inc. (EBAY) in late September said it will spin-off its PayPal digital-payments unit from the marketplace business by the end of 2015.
Symantec shares, which have traded in a range of $17.95 to $25.60 over the past year, closed Thursday's regular trading session at $23.44, down 57 cents or 2.37%, but gained 21 cents or 0.90% in after hours trading.
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