Chipmaker Broadcom is buying cybersecurity company Symantec’s enterprise security business for $10.7 billion in cash. The deal is part of Broadcom’s ongoing effort to diversify beyond its memory chip business.
Broadcom expects the transaction to generate more than $1 billion of run-rate cost synergies within 12 months following close partly by eliminating redundancies. The anticipated close is before the end of the year.
After the deal close, Symantec plans to return deal proceeds after-tax to investors as a $12-a-share special dividend. The company expects to increase the regular quarterly dividend to $0.125 per share after the closing of the deal, funded solely by consumer Cyber Safety’s on-going business and with the potential to increase future dividends after the transaction period and once stranded costs are eliminated.
“This is a transformative transaction that should maximize immediate value to our shareholders while maintaining ownership in a pure-play consumer cyber safety business with predictability, growth, and strong consistent profitability,” said Rick Hill, Symantec’s interim president, and CEO.
The Symantec enterprise business produced $2.3 billion in revenue in the 2019 fiscal year, or about half of the company’s total revenue. Symantec’s revenue declined 2% in its 2019 fiscal year, which ended on March 29. In May, Symantec CEO Greg Clark stepped down and Hill took over in the interim.
On Thursday, Symantec said that it is looking for a CEO for the remaining consumer business.
In July, the two companies ceased deal negotiations for a full merger after price disagreements. Symantec would not accept less than $28 per share.
Broadcom has been seeking to acquire several companies over the years. It failed to buy chipmaker Qualcomm for more than $100 billion when the U.S. Department of Justice blocked the deal. Broadcom later paid nearly $19 billion for CA, a mainframe software company.
On Friday afternoon, Broadcom was trading at $274.81, up $3.83, or 1.41%.
Symantec was trading Friday afternoon at $22.76, down 18 cents, or 0.79%.