GEC NEWS WIRESymantec and Blue Coat revealed that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Symantec will acquire Blue Coat for approximately $4.65 billion in cash. Greg Clark, Chief Executive Officer of Blue Coat, will be appointed Chief Executive Officer of Symantec and join the Symantec Board upon closing of the transaction.
With the acquisition of Blue Coat, Symantec will enhance its leadership position to define the future of cybersecurity and set the pace for innovation industrywide. The combined company will- Protect customers against more cyber threats, with best-in-breed protection, detection and remediation across endpoint, email, web, network and servers, help enterprises securely embrace the cloud, bring together a formidable scale of investment in cyber R&D and threat research.
“With this transaction, we will have the scale, portfolio and resources necessary to usher in a new era of innovation designed to help protect large customers and individual consumers against insider threats and sophisticated cybercriminals,” said Dan Schulman, Chairman of Symantec.
Greg Clark, Chief Executive Officer of Blue Coat, said, “Once combined, we will offer customers around the world – from large enterprises and governments to individual consumers – unrivaled threat protection and unmatched cloud security. With employees of Blue Coat and Symantec coming together, we will be well positioned to drive meaningful growth and push the boundaries of innovation.”
Thomas Seifert, Chief Financial Officer of Symantec, said, “We are reiterating our first quarter guidance and maintaining our commitment to our previously announced $5.5 billion capital return program, of which the remaining $1.3 billion will be returned by the end of the current fiscal year. We will also continue our practice of paying a quarterly dividend to our shareholders.”
