Chipmaker Broadcom is in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity giant Symantec in a deal that could exceed $15 billion, according to several news outlets.
Bloomberg broke the news about the acquisition talks and the Financial Times and Reuters have managed to obtain independent confirmation from their sources. However, Symantec and Broadcom have refused to confirm or deny the reports.
Symantec shares jumped from $22.10 to $25.48 after Bloomberg published its article, but Broadcom stock fell roughly four percent to $284.
The news comes after last year Broadcom announced the acquisition of CA Technologies for $18.9 billion. The chipmaker also attempted to buy rival Qualcomm last year, but the deal was blocked by US President Donald Trump.
As for Symantec, the company claims to provide its products and services to over 50 million consumers and 350,000 organizations around the world.
The company recently reported a revenue of roughly $4.7 billion for the fiscal year 2019. The financial report, which showed a smaller revenue than the previous year and what analysts had estimated, was accompanied by an announcement that Greg Clark had stepped down and board member Richard Hill was named interim chief executive officer and president.
If the Broadcom acquisition of Symantec is confirmed, it would be the second time a chip giant acquires a major cybersecurity firm. Intel acquired McAfee in 2010 for $7.68 billion and later renamed it Intel Security. In 2016, however, McAfee once again became an independent company after a sale to TPG that valued it at $4.2 billion.
Related: Symantec Shares More Information on Internal Investigation
Related: Symantec Acquires Zero Trust Cloud Security Startup Luminate Security
