Symantec Exploring a Sale of Its Veritas Business -- 2nd Update

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 [e-mail] and Dana Mattioli at [e-mail]

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