Symantec Reportedly Exploring Sale Of Its Veritas Business

(RTTNews) - Symantec Corp. (SYMC) is exploring a sale of its Veritas data-storage and recovery business, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The maker of Norton anti-virus software in recent weeks has contacted private-equity firms and possible industry bidders about buying Veritas, the Journal quoted the people as saying. The business could fetch more than $8 billion in a sale, according to the journal.

In October 2014, Symantec announced a plan to separate the company into two, independent publicly traded companies: one business focused on security and one business focused on information management. In January, the Mountain View, California-based company said that the information-management company would be named Veritas Technologies Corp.

Symantec is considering a sale of Veritas as an alternative to the split, the people told the Journal.

Symantec shares closed Friday's regular trading session at $25.58, up $1.35 or 5.59%.