Symantec Sells Web-Certification Business to DigiCert

Cybersecurity firm Symantec Corp. said Wednesday it has agreed to sell its website-security business to DigiCert Inc.

In the deal, Symantec will receive $950 million in cash and a roughly 30% stake in DigiCert, a Utah-based web-certification firm backed by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC.

Symantec Chief Executive Greg Clark said in prepared remarks that selling DigiCert "allows us to sharpen our enterprise focus" on its cloud-security business.

DigiCert will continue to be led by Chief Executive John Merrill, the companies said. Thoma Bravo bought a majority stake in DigiCert in 2015 for an unspecified amount.

The transaction is expected to be completed in Symantec's fiscal third quarter.

Symantec on Wednesday also reported that it swung to a first-quarter loss of $133 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with a profit of $135 million, or 22 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding special items and restructuring expenses, Symantec earned 33 cents a share. Adjusted revenue rose 39% to $1.23 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn 31 cents on an adjusted per-share basis on $1.21 billion in revenue.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 02, 2017 18:59 ET (22:59 GMT)