When Symantec gobbled up Veritas in 2005 the security specialist effectively stepped into the storage market and 10 years later it is stepping back out.
Symantec on Tuesday announced that it is selling Veritas to private equity investors, spearheaded by the Carlyle Group, for approximately $8 billion.
"This transaction strengthens our financial foundation, paving the way for Symantec to grow its security business," Symantec CEO Michael Brown said in a prepared statement.
Symantec's security business has increasingly focused on healthcare in recent years and the company counts providers including Adventist Health, Barnabas Health, and the State University of New York Medical Center among the customers willing to be named publicly.
The vendor also has a quiver of products specifically geared for healthcare, such as breach prevention, mobility, risk management and compliance software. In mid-July, Symantec partnered with Frost Data Capital to stand up a cybersecurity incubator to catalyze security and IoT (Internet of Things) technologies for a range of vertical industry, healthcare among them.
The nearly $6.3 billion Symantec expects to profit from the deal will give the company "a new lease on life in terms of focusing on core security," as FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives told Reuters. "If you think about potential acquisition candidates, those will be names like Proofpoint, Qualis, FortiNet as well as a host of private companies."
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