Software company Symantec has announced it will break itself into two firms, one focused on storage and the other on security.
The move undoes the previous $10.2bn purchase of storage firm Veritas in 2005, and Symantec will hope to reverse its recent revenue fall during the last fiscal year, which dropped 3% to $6.7bn.
Michael Brown, recently appointed chief executive of Symantec, said: "Separating Symantec into two, independent publicly traded companies will provide each business the flexibility and focus to drive growth and enhance shareholder value.
"It has become clear that winning in both security and information management requires distinct strategies, focused investments and go-to market innovation."
Symantec’s cybersecurity business generated $4.2bn in revenue during the last fiscal year, compared to the information management business’s $2.5bn in the same period.
Splitting the company into two distinct sectors may open the firms to acquisition, with the US multinationals EMC and Hewlett-Packard both said to be interested, according to the media group Bloomberg.
Marcin Kleczynski, chief executive at security firm Malwarebytes, said: "The decision to split Symantec in two is a perfect example of this need for focus in the security sector.
"By freeing itself from the distractions created by trying to capture a variety of markets, Symantec can be more single-minded in their response to the ever advancing threat landscape."
As rumours of Symantec’s breakup emerged on Wednesday the share price jumped to a closing price of $24.01, but it had since fallen back to $23.44 by the end of market hours on Thursday.
The company joins a number of tech companies who have just decided to break up, including Hewlett-Packard and eBay, which will spin off its payments service PayPal.
Symantec’s split will be complete by December of next year.
