Symantec To Reportedly Reach Deal To Buy LifeLock For $2.3 Billion, Adding To Its Consumer Offerings


Symantec Corp. may be taking the company’s consumer units to new heights, especially if it acquires LifeLock in a reported multi-billion dollar deal.

According to Reuters, Symantec is working on acquiring the U.S. identity theft protection services firm for a reported enterprise value of $2.3 billion.

An official announcement has not been made about the reported acquisition by either company. However, a recent article published by Bloomberg states that the company is expected to announce the deal “as soon as Monday” based on a source who asked not to be named in the report due to the privacy of the process.

If Symantec does in fact close the deal to acquire LifeLock for $2.3 billion, the major cyber security company would have blown away the competing bids from such bidders as Permira, Evergreen Coast Capital, and TPG.

LifeLock reportedly had a 4.4 million members subscribing to their services at the end of the third quarter, reflecting a year-to-year increase of 8 percent. The Arizona-based company is known for offering monitoring services that target such things as new account openings and credit applications. LifeLock members depend on the company to alert them whenever their identify has been used or accessed without authorization. In addition to providing standard consumer services, LifeLock has been able to also offer their services to creditors, merchants, and government agencies — striving to reduce the growing prevalence of identity theft cases from both sides.

According to Bloomberg, inside sources claimed that LifeLock has worked alongside Goldman Sachs Group Inc., on a potential sale for several months now. Company shares within the stock market have rose right along with the membership numbers with a reported increase of 45 percent to $20.75. That major bump in the stock market allowed the company’s overall market value to jump to nearly $1.95 billion.

Locking down LifeLock with this acquisition would be a major move for Symantec in regards to the company’s consumer unit. Their existing consumer operations focus primarily on protecting desktop and laptop computers with antivirus software. Adding LifeLock to the equation allows them to enhance the quality of their consumer services, which, in turn, will make them even more appealing in the eyes of their target market.

With the increased awareness of identity theft and the lasting damage that it can cause its victim, it is not very surprising that LifeLock’s value has had such an impressive year. Over 1 billion records filled with personally identifiable information were reportedly leaked in 2014 alone, according to Credit.com.

Shortly after acquiring Blue Coat earlier this year, Symantec named the former Blue Coat CEO Greg Clark as their new CEO. Clark opened up about that particular acquisition and the company’s integration road map in a June interview with CRN.

“I think [threat intelligence] is an integration that give us immediate benefit without having to go and change a whole bunch of code in the basic products. Our ability to integrate the threat intelligence into the email systems, the secure web gateway systems, the endpoint systems, really brings the effectiveness of those products all the way up… We’re very excited to be able to do that and do that at a rapid pace.”

Even though Clark did not discuss Symantec’s eventual plan to bid on acquiring LifeLock, the vision that he painted in that interview with CRN painted a clear picture of the direction in which the company was heading overall.

Symantec acquiring LifeLock could offer consumers a solid package of high-quality antivirus software and identity theft protection as one consolidated option.

[Featured Image by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo]

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