Broadcom Sells Symantec Unit To Accenture

IT services giant Accenture has announced it is to acquire Symantec’s Cyber Security Services business from Broadcom, for an undisclosed amount.

The news is surprising, considering that Broadcom had only acquired the enterprise division of veteran security specialist Symantec, for a hefty $10.7bn ($8.8bn) in cash, back in August last year.

Last year Broadcom had been attempting to acquire Symantec entirely, but its efforts collapsed in July 2019, when the two firms were reportedly unable to reach agreement on the acquisition price. Soon after that Broadcom was reported to be in “advanced talks” to acquire Symantec, but only for its enterprise business division. It finally sealed that deal in August.

Symantec acquisition

Boradcom said at the time the deal would help its efforts to reinvent itself as “one of the world’s leading infrastructure technology companies”, by adding to its acquisitions of Brocade and CA Technologies.

But now just five months after acquiring Symantec’s enterprise unit, it has agreed to sell it to Accenture.

The division will slot into Accenture Security, making it one of the leading providers of managed security services, Accenture claimed.

The services giant has already acquired other security players such as Deja vu Security, iDefense, Maglan, Redcore, Arismore and FusionX.

The deal will see Accenture take on Symantec’s portfolio of Cyber Security Services, which includes global threat monitoring and analysis, which is conducted via a network of security operation centres and threat intelligence and incident response services.

Those six security operations centres are located in the US, the United Kingdom, India, Australia, Singapore and Japan.

There is no word on any possible redundancies or cost cutting at the time of writing.

Security boost

“Cybersecurity has become one of the most critical business imperatives for all organisations regardless of industry or geographic location,” said Julie Sweet, Accenture’s CEO. “With the addition of Symantec’s Cyber Security Services business, Accenture Security will offer one of the most comprehensive managed services for global businesses to detect and manage cybersecurity threats aimed at their companies.”

“This acquisition is a game-changer and will help Accenture provide flexibility rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach to managed security services,” said Kelly Bissell, senior managing director of Accenture Security.

“With Symantec’s Cyber Security Services business, we can now bring clients our combined expertise fine-tuned to their industry with tailored global threat intelligence powered by advanced analytics, automation and machine learning,” said Bissell.

Symantec’s Enterprise Security business is headquartered in Mountain View, California and its Cyber Security Services business has more than 300 employees globally.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in March 2020.

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