CUPERTINO, CA. ? Reports circulating widely Tuesday say Symantec, one of the leaders in anti virus software, is in advanced talks to acquire Veritas Software, a storage and systems management powerhouse, for about $13 billion. The deal could close by Friday.
A Symantec-Veritas merger, should it occur, would immediately make Symantec the dominant player in the business of protecting corporate networks and personal computers, one of the hottest growth areas in enterprise software.
A Symantec-Veritas merger would create a roughly $4.5 billion (sales) company that already has established partnerships with many of the leading systems companies, systems integrators and retail outlets. The deal also would contribute to the merger frenzy among less successful software companies to merger or get out of the business, experts say.
Symantec’s chief executive, John Thompson, a former executive with IBM, has reshaped the company since taking over in 1999. Thompson focused Symantec, best known for its Norton line of antivirus and PC utility tools, entirely on security, divesting unrelated product lines and replacing most of the company’s management team.
The possible acquisition reflects the increasing importance of security in information technology, both because of the onslaught of viruses, worms and hacker attacks in recent years and the need to comply with new regulations, in particular the Sarbanes-Oxley reform measures, which require companies to certify the security of their financial-reporting systems.
Spokespeople for both companies declined to comment on the matter.
