Symantec buying internet security firm Blue Coat for $4.65B

Computer security software company Symantec is bolstering its web protection portfolio with the acquisition of Web security firm Blue Coat.

Blue Coat CEO Greg Clark will take the helm of the combined corporation and join its board after the deal closes in the third quarter, both companies said in a statement. Symantec’s former CEO Michael Brown left the position in April after his company scuppered its Q4 2016 sales. Bain Capital has also agreed to invest an additional $750 million in the company, as well as adding David Humphrey, a Managing Director of Bain Capital Private Equity, to Symantec’s Board of Directors.

Despite growing concern about security after high-profile security breaches, Symantec has not been able to translate that into a favorable outcome for the company on the financial front.

Cronin’s comment on scale is echoed by Ajei Gopal, Symantec’s interim president and COO, who points out that Symantec collects and analyzes security data from sources, including more than 175 million endpoints protected through Symantec Endpoint Protection and over 2 billion emails scanned per day through Symantec’s Email Cloud. The company s engineering can be used 000 businesses, by over 15 to dam inappropriate or harmful sites.

The transaction represents the second time Blue Coat has been acquired in as many years, with Bain spending $2.4 billion to buy the security company in 2015. Blue Coat& rsquo site may be the Internet although Symantec is just a leader in antivirus application that operates on PCS. For Blue Coat’s fiscal year ending April 30, 2016, GAAP revenue was $598 million and non-GAAP revenue was $755 million, with 17% year-over-year growth, supported by new products and new consumers.

“Once combined, we will offer customers around the world – from large enterprises and governments to individual consumers – unrivaled threat protection and unmatched cloud security”, said CEO Clark.

Shares of Symantec were last seen trading up 7% at $18.50 on Monday, with a consensus analyst price target of $18.90 and a 52-week trading range of $16.14 to $24.59.

Blue Coat was in line to have an initial public offering, but it appears that Symantec has preempted the move. Clark will become Symantec’s fourth CEO in as many years, fulfilling its search for a leader with experience running a cybersecurity company and providing what investors hope will be much-needed stability. Schulman will remain as Chairman of the company after the transaction is complete, the company said.

Bain has done well on its Blue Coat investment.

The transaction brings with it another benefit for Symantec.