Silicon Splits: Symantec, HP And Five Other Big Tech Breakups

It's Not You. It's Me

On Thursday Symantec joined a growing number of tech companies that revealed plans to break in two. The news followed Hewlett-Packard's split into two companies, announced Monday. The week before that eBay said it would spin off its PayPal business unit. And let's not forget IBM, which parsed off its x86 server business in a $2.1 billion deal with Lenovo. And the list goes on.

Recently the tech world is giving Hollywood a run for its money when it comes to blockbuster breakups. Eat your heart out Robin Thicke and Paula Patton.

Symantec Splits Into Security, Information Management Companies

Symantec said Thursday its board of directors approved a plan to split into two publicly-traded companies: a $4.2 billion security business and a $2.5 billion information management business. The spinoff is expected to be complete at the end of 2015. The security business will continue to be led by Symantec President and CEO Michael Brown (pictured) and Chief Financial Officer Thomas Seifert. The information management business will be led by former Quantum President and Chief Operating Officer John Gannon, with Vice President of Global Tax Don Rath stepping in as acting CFO. Much of Symantec's information management capabilities came from a 2005 acquisition of VERITAS Software Corp.

Hewlett-Packard To Split Into Two $56 Billion Powerhouses

HP said Monday it is splitting its business in two. The future Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will include enterprise systems, software and services, while HP Inc. will take on the company's personal systems and printing business and will also retain the current HP branding and logo. Each business counts about $56 billion in sales.

Hewlett-Packard partners told CRN HP's decision to split into two publicly-traded, Fortune 50 companies will result in more agile and innovative businesses that will turn up the heat on competitors in the enterprise and PC-printer markets.

eBay Pulls About-face, Agrees to Spin Off PayPal

EBay agreed Sept. 30 to split off its rapidly growing PayPal business from its traditional, lower-growth e-commerce business. The deal came after months of resistance by eBay leadership and is slated to close in the second half of 2015. The breakup is expected to make it easier for PayPal to build partnerships with e-commerce rivals and gain market share from payment startups as well as technology giants like Apple. PayPal was acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.4 million. Current eBay CEO John Donahoe is expected to step down when the spinoff is complete, with eBay Marketplaces President Devin Wenig taking over the slimmed-down eBay and former American Express online and mobile payment head Dan Schulman leading PayPal.

IBM Shaves Off $2.1 Billion x86 Server Business To Lenovo

IBM and Lenovo made it official in September, when the $2.1 billion blockbuster deal to sell Big Blue's x86 server business to the China-owned technology giant officially closed. The deal positions Lenovo to be a global server powerhouse and channel giant, empowering its partners to go head-to-head with Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Cisco.

With IBM's server business, Lenovo becomes the world's No. 1 PC maker overnight and becomes the third largest commodity x86 server maker behind HP and Dell, according to IDC. Lenovo said the deal now makes it an end-to-end service provider. Lenovo partners said their PC businesses will act as a springboard for selling other higher-margin Lenovo servers and services.

Juniper Sheds Mobile Security Unit

Juniper Networks in July sold its Junos Pulse mobile security portfolio to Siris Capital as part of an on-going effort to cut costs and refocus its efforts around cloud.

Siris paid $250 million for the unit, which has since has been re-launched as an independent company named Pulse Secure. Siris said the company will continue to go to market with legacy Juniper products, including its Pulse VPN solution, Pulse network access control (NAC) gateway and Pulse mobile security solutions.

The roughly 1,800 Juniper partners selling the Junos Pulse line are set to be transitioned into a new Pulse Secure partner program, headed up by former Juniper channel executive Doug Erickson.

CA Technologies Spins Off Arcserve

CA Technologies said in July it planned to spin off its Arcserve data backup and recovery software business to a private equity company. Arcserve, a popular product among CA channel partners, became an independent company in August with Mike Crest (pictured), CA senior vice president and general manager of its data management business, becoming the new company's CEO.

The Arcserve divestiture came a few months after CA sold its ERwin data modeling software business to Embarcadero Technologies. The value of both deals weren't disclosed.

Cisco Cuts Ties With Linksys

As part of a broader effort to part ways with its consumer-facing product lines, Cisco in 2013 confirmed plans to sell its Home Networking Business Unit, including its Linksys line, to Belkin.

The deal was rumored to be in the works as early as May 2011, following Cisco's decision to kill off its Flip video camera business, along with its Umi personal telepresence offering.

It's a move that's turned out well for Belkin; the consumer and small-business networking and electronics provider still uses the Linksys brand today to represent its SMB products, and recently rolled out a channel program for its Linksys line.

Cisco acquired Linksys in 2003 for $500 million. Terms of the deal with Belkin were not disclosed.