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Home > Report: Activist Investor Elliott Management Takes Large Stake In Symantec

Report: Activist Investor Elliott Management Takes Large Stake In Symantec [1]

bySarah Kuranda [2] on February 5, 2016, 11:31 am EST

Symantec has another high-profile investor, with a report emerging late Thursday that activist hedge
fund investor Elliott Management has taken a large stake in the security vendor.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elliott
Management had amassed a big stake in the vendor, large enough to now be one of the
companys largest shareholders.

CRN reached out to Symantec for comment, but had not heard back at the time of publication.

[Related: Symantec Partners Cheer $500M Silver Lake Private Equity Investment [3]]

The report [4] comes on the heels of Thursdays announcement that Silver Lake had made a $500
million investment in the Mountain View, Calif-based vendor. Silver Lake is best known for helping
take Dell private in 2013.

News of the strategic investment from Silver Lake shot the companys stock up 12 percent after
hours to a high of $21.49. The Journal report said Elliott Management supported the Silver Lake
investment.

Elliott Management is well-known for its technology investments, as well as its habit of publicly
pushing those companies to undertake drastic changes. The most recent example of that is Elliott
Managements pressuring of management at aluminum manufacturer Alcoa to split in two, which
the company yielded to at the beginning of the month. It also pressed for EMC to spin off VMware
as an independent company, a fight that ended this January with the agreement to add two Elliott-
approved additions to EMCs board of directors [5].

Symantec CEO Michael Brown did not mention a possible investment from Elliott Management on
the companys third-quarter earnings call Thursday night. He did say, however, that the investment
from Silver Lake was a strong vote of confidence in both our transformation, as well as our future
as a world leader in cybersecurity.

Partners were wildly supportive of the Silver Lake investment in Symantec, calling it a validation of
and a vote of confidence in the companys strategy.

I believe Silver Lakes investment is validation around the steps Symantec and its leadership is
taking, Jason Eberhardt, vice president of strategic alliances at Chicago-based Symantec partner
Conventus, said in an email to CRN.

Wade Wyant, president and founder of ITS Partners, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Symantec
partner, said he would rather see an investment from private equity than a large company, such as
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise or Cisco Systems, purchasing the security vendor outright.
However, partners also worried about the possible implications of a private equity investment from a
company like Elliott Management. One partner executive, who did not want to be named, said he
worried that a big investment from an activist investor or other private equity firm could split up the
company or sell pieces of the business in a way that isnt favorable to partners.

However, the partner did acknowledge that it could be a positive move as well, depending on what
actions are ultimately taken.

Symantec stock was still up, even after the Journal report emerged. At the time of publication, the
stock was up about 5 percent to $20.03.

Source URL: http://www.crn.com/news/security/300079611/report-activist-investor-elliott-management-takes-large-stake-

in-symantec.htm

Links
[1] http://www.crn.com/news/security/300079611/report-activist-investor-elliott-management-takes-large-stake-in-
symantec.htm
[2] http://www.crn.com/author/sarah-kuranda
[3] http://www.crn.com/news/security/300079607/symantec-partners-cheer-500m-silver-lake-management-investment.htm?
itc=hp_todays_news
[4] http://www.wsj.com/articles/symantec-gets-500-million-investment-from-silver-lake-1454623200?
mod=WSJ_TechWSJD_NeedToKnow
[5] http://www.crn.com/news/storage/300075334/emc-elliott-management-sign-truce-but-vmware-federation-questions-
remain.htm