Symantec, one of the biggest names in cybersecurity, has sold off the company's name and enterprise business to Broadcom for $10.7 billion.
What remains of Symantec will focus on consumer and small business cybesecurity through the company's Norton antivirus and LifeLock identity threat protection products.
Symantec's enterprise security business, on the other hand, is merging with Broadcom, a supplier of semiconductors, ethernet switches and data center technologies. Last year, the company famously tried to buy Qualcomm, but was later rebuffed by the Trump administration.
Symantec made today's deal when its enterprise security business has been struggling to post year-over-year growth. The enterprise offerings include products to secure cloud servers, computers, and corporate email from hacker intrusions.
On the same day, the company announced a downsizing plan that'll involve laying off 7 percent of its employees, and closing certain facilities. In a statement, Symantec's interm CEO Rick Hill said its consumer business contributed 90 percent of the company's operating income in this year's second quarter.
As for Broadcom, the company plans on using the acquired enterprise security business to help it generate an additional $2 billion in future revenue.
"Symantec's enterprise security business is recognized as an established leader in the growing enterprise security space and has developed some of the world's most powerful defense solutions," Broadcom's CEO Hock Tan said in a statement. "We look forward to expanding our footprint of mission critical infrastructure software within our core Global 2000 customer base."
The acquisition is expected to close before year's end pending regulatory approval. Last year, the Trump administration blocked Broadcom's plan to buy Qualcomm over national security concerns. A key worry was that Broadcom would pull back R&D investments at Qualcomm, opening the door for Chinese companies such as Huawei to further expand in the mobile semiconductor space.
There's no word yet on what Symantec will rename itself, but we wouldn't be surprised if it settled on Norton LifeLock. In 2016, Symantec moved to acquire LifeLock for $2.3 billion.