Symantec Sees Consumer Promise in LifeLock Deal

By Robert McMillan 

With its $2.3 billion acquisition of identity-protection-services seller LifeLock Inc., Symantec Corp. is looking to breathe new life into its consumer-product line, which has long been defined by Norton antivirus products.

Symantec said it would keep both brands and integrate LifeLock with Norton's offerings into a single product line after the acquisition closes, expected early next year. The goal is to give consumers a one-stop shop for identity-theft and computer-protection products.

"We did a lot of work on assessing the many millions of Norton customers and their affinity with LifeLock," said Greg Clark, Symantec's chief executive. "We feel really good about our ability to go into the very large Norton customer base and cross-sell them identity protection."

The combined LifeLock and Norton product lines represent $2.3 billion in annual revenue, and Mr. Clark believes the acquisition will reverse recent revenue declines. Although spending on computer security is on the upswing, Symantec, the world's largest security-software company by revenue, has struggled. In the fiscal year ended April 1, revenue fell 9% from a year earlier.

At LifeLock, meanwhile, revenue rose 14.5% through the first nine months of the year. LifeLock has more than 4.4 million subscribers for services starting at $10 a month. Its growth has come partly through aggressive marketing. Last year, LifeLock agreed to pay $113 million to settle deceptive-advertising charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission. LifeLock neither confirmed nor denied the FTC allegations.

Symantec expects to see single-digit percentage growth in its consumer business after the acquisition closes in early 2017. The company wants to build new products that leverage LifeLock's data analytics to identify emerging cyberthreats, said Symantec's Mr. Clark.

The cash deal will value LifeLock at $24 a share, a 16% premium to its Friday price of $20.75, near its 52-week high. Shares of Symantec rose 3.2% Monday afternoon.

Like other makers of antivirus software, Symantec has struggled to come up with hit products in recent years and has been hurt by the global slowdown in PC sales, the rise of free antivirus products, and the move to mobile devices.

Former Chief Executive Michael Brown stepped down in April following disappointing financial results. Two months later, the company said it would acquire Blue Coat Systems Inc. in a $4.65 billion deal, the company's largest acquisition since its 2005 purchase of Veritas Software. Mr. Clark, who had been CEO of Blue Coat, joined Symantec as part of the deal.

In January, Symantec sold its Veritas data-storage unit to Carlyle Group for $7.4 billion.

"Symantec's strategy is to retreat to the high end of the market," said Peter Firstbrook, an analyst with Gartner Inc., adding that the deal "makes some sense from that perspective."

However, he warned that Symantec is paying dearly for a company that may not continue to deliver growth. LifeLock's core business of monitoring consumers' identity "is relatively flat and seems to be fully penetrated, " he said in an email.

A Symantec spokesman said the company disagrees with Mr. Firstbrook's assessment

Write to Robert McMillan at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 21, 2016 16:32 ET (21:32 GMT)

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