Private equity firms Permira Advisers Ltd. and Advent International Corp. recently approached Symantec Corp. to buy the cybersecurity company for $26 per share to $27 per share, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
The potential deal, valuing Symantec at more than $16 billion, would reportedly give the private equity firms Symantec's consumer security business while preserving Broadcom Inc.'s previously announced acquisition of Symantec's enterprise security assets, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
It is not clear if Permira and Advent would first purchase Symantec and then move forward with the Broadcom acquisition or wait for the acquisition to close before the firms buy the consumer unit, according to the Journal. Symantec's consumer business includes its Norton antivirus and LifeLock identity-theft protection products.
The Broadcom transaction, subject to regulatory approvals as well as other closing conditions, is expected to close in Broadcom's fiscal first quarter of 2020, which begins Nov. 4, 2019.
