Boston, MA 10/08/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Looks like the “splitting” trend is on, as after eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), one of the largest security firm Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) is reportedly planning to split into two companies. If Bloomberg report is anything to go by, the California-based is mulling a breakup of the company to be slimmer and agile.
According to the report, Symantec is in advanced talks to split up its business into two separate entities, just similar to what HP did separating its PC & printer and services businesses and eBay splitting its mobile payment division to make Paypal a separate entity.
In Symantec’s case, the company may separate its security and storage businesses into two separate companies. One company will sell security programs and another entity would do data storage, Bloomberg quoted officials who asked not to be named.
Infact, the discussions are in such a stage that the company might make a formal announcement in just few weeks.
Symantec’s spokeswoman Kristen Batch, however, declined to comment on the matter saying “they don’t comment on rumors.”
If there’s any reality on this news, then Symantec would join Silicon Valley technology companies that are becoming slimmer and cutting down themselves into pieces to be more focused and agile.
Coming back to the two “hot” splits in recent times are of EBay, an online marketplace which on September 30 announced its plans to separate its digital payments division PayPal and marketplace business into two separate companies by the end of 2015. In addition, Hewlett-Packard announced it would make its personal computer and printers businesses into one entity and bring the enterprise-focussed hardware and services businesses under another company, named Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.
It is said that Symantec’s move will be more to do with its falling sales. The company, which has a market value of $16 billion, appointed its interim CEO Michael Brown permanently to the role. Symantec has been struggling to keep its numbers up, a result of falling PC sales. In March 2014, the company fired Steve Bennett from his CEO position and named Brown as interim president and CEO. Symantec has had three CEOs in less than two years.
