Symantec Buys Veritas

Wow, another consolidation!   

Symantec Corp. (NasdaqNM:SYMC - News), a maker of
security software, on Thursday said it would buy storage
software maker Veritas Software Corp. (NasdaqNM:VRTS - News) for $13.5
billion, creating the world's fourth-largest software company.

The all-stock deal values Veritas at $30.78 a share, a
premium of 9.5 percent over its closing price on Wednesday on
the Nasdaq stock market.

Shares of Veritas rose to $28.90 in pre-market trade on the
Inet electronic brokerage system. Shares of Symantec, known for
its Norton anti-virus software, fell 5 percent to $26.

Combined, the companies would have annual revenue of $5
billion and would compete directly with Microsoft Corp.
(NasdaqNM:MSFT - News), which has stepped up its push into the data storage
and security software markets in recent years.