Mountain View-based Symantec soared higher on Friday after revealing better-than-expected profits and revenue, and disclosing that private equity firm Silver Lake Investors has taken a $500 million stake in the cybersecurity company.
Symantec was up more than 3 percent in midday trading.
In connection with Silver Lake s investment, Symantec also brought its capital return to shareholders program to a total of $5 billion, by increasing the program by $1 billion, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Symantec also completed the sale of its Veritas unit to private equity firm Carlyle Group in a deal that will net Symantec $5.3 billion in after-tax proceeds. Symantec completed the $7.4 billion sale on Jan. 29.
Despite the extra cash, Symantec s focus will be to slash costs, including potentially, reductions in staffing.
We re announcing a target of $400 million in cost reduction to be achieved over the next two years, Symantec s chief executive officer, Mike Brown, told analysts during a conference call to discuss the earnings results for the maker of the Norton anti-virus software.
Shareholders also will be prime beneficiaries of the Symantec war chest through the plan to bestow about $5 billion on shareholders.
A total of $2.7 billion will be returned to shareholders through a special dividend of $4 a share, and $2.3 billion will be returned through an accelerated share repurchase program, Symantec said in the filing.
Profits totaled $170 million for the third fiscal quarter that ended Jan. 1, but those tumbled 23.4 percent compared to the year-ago third quarter.
Earnings were 26 cents a share, excluding certain items. Wall Street had predicted profits would be 24 cents a share.
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