Symantec Corp. (SYMC) is exploring a breakup, according to people with knowledge of the matter, joining other large technology companies that are trying to make their businesses more focused and nimble.
The Mountain View, California-based software company is in advanced talks to split up its business into two entities, with one that sells security programs and another that does data storage, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the conversations are private. An announcement may be a few weeks away, one of the people said.
Kristen Batch, a spokeswoman at Symantec, declined to comment. The company has a market value of $16 billion.
If the breakup is carried out, Symantec would add to the trend of Silicon Valley technology companies that are cleaving themselves into pieces.
EBay Inc. (EBAY) said on Sept. 30 that it would separate its PayPal digital-payments unit and marketplace business into two companies by the end of next year. Earlier this week,
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) said it would hive off the personal computer and printers businesses into one entity and carve the corporate hardware and services businesses into another company.
