SYMC Symantec Corporation

By Robert McMillan and Cara Lombardo 

Broadcom Inc. is nearing a deal to buy Symantec Corp.'s enterprise business after its attempted purchase of the entire cybersecurity firm fell apart.

A deal for the Symantec business could be announced as early as Thursday, when Symantec reports its results, according to people familiar with the matter. As with the earlier attempt, the talks could still fall apart.

The deal could value the Symantec division at around $10 billion, one of the people said.

Broadcom had previously been in late-stage discussions to buy all of Symantec before the talks fell apart last month. Since then, the two sides have rekindled discussions, with Broadcom zeroing in on the Symantec business that serves businesses and accounts for roughly half its $5 billion in annual revenue. The consumer segment accounts for the rest.

For Symantec, the deal would be big. Its entire market value is about $12.6 billion -- it has more than $2 billion of net debt -- compared with about $107.6 billion for Broadcom.

Symantec is set to report its fiscal first-quarter earnings Thursday afternoon.

--Asa Fitch contributed to this article.

Write to Robert McMillan at Robert.Mcmillan@wsj.com and Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 07, 2019 17:04 ET (21:04 GMT)

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