Symantec's services business offloaded by Broadcom

Global SI acquires six security operations centres and 300 Symantec staff

Broadcom has sold off Symantec's Cyber Security Services business to Accenture following its $10.7bn acquisition of the vendor's enterprise business last year.

The unit, headquartered in Mountain View, California, comprises 300 staff based across six security operation centres (SOCs) in the UK, the US, India, Australia, Singapore and Japan.

The deal's terms and transaction details were not disclosed, but is expected to close in March 2020.

Accenture claims acquiring the Symantec unit will make it one of the world's leading MSSPs. It comes hot on the heels of previous security acquisitions of Déjà vu Security, iDefense, Maglan, Redcore, Arismore and FusionX.

The global systems integrator also announced that it has acquired a Gold-level SAP partner called maihiro. Based in Munich, maihiro has around 160 staff across Germany and Austria and claims to have completed 1,500 projects for 400 customers.

"Cybersecurity has become one of the most critical business imperatives for all organizations regardless of industry or geographic location," said Accenture CEO Julie Sweet.

"With the addition of Symantec's Cyber Security Services business, Accenture Security will offer one of the most comprehensive managed services for global businesses to detect and manage cybersecurity threats aimed at their companies."

Broadcom sells off Symantec's cybersecurity services business just months after it acquired its enterprise arm for $10.7bn - leaving behind its consumer business which is now known as NortonLifeLock.

Symantec's sale to Broadcom sparked rumours in the channel that the semiconductor vendor will begin to take Symantec's biggest customers direct.

Several channel execs exited the vendor at the end of last year, including Germany boss Thomas Hoffman and central European boss Kira Zaytsev.

The security vendor's change of ownership has similarly caused some unrest among its European distribution partners. Value-added distributor Nuvias ended its relationship with Symantec last year, replacing it with Romanian firm Bitdefender, while the CEO of Swiss VAD Infinigate, Klaus Schlichtherle, said that there's been "silence" from the vendor after the Broadcom deal.