Symantec to sell its data storage business Veritas to Carlyle: Reports

Software security company Symantec Corp has agreed to sell its data storage business Veritas to private equity firm Carlyle Group LP, according to a person familiar with the matter. A deal could be announced as soon as Tuesday, when Symantec is due to report its quarterly earnings, the person said, asking not to be named because the matter is private. [caption id=“attachment_2196370” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Logo[/caption] Carlyle declined to comment. Symantec could not immediately be reached for comment. Bloomberg had reported first last month that Symantec was nearing a deal to sell Veritas to Carlyle for between $7 billion and $8 billion. Symantec has been seeking buyers for Veritas for several months, but interest from potential buyers was limited because of a tax burden associated with splitting the company. Symantec had been planning to separate its business focused on corporate and consumer security software, which had $4.2 billion in revenue last year, from Veritas, which has about $2.5 billion in revenue. It announced the tax-free spinoff last October. Investor pressure has been building on legacy technology companies such as Symantec to become more agile and capitalize on faster-growing businesses, whether it’s through corporate breakups or divestitures.   Reuters