Symantec, Help From Within & From Outside (SYMC)

Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) is catching a bid this morning, although it is still at the lower-end of its 52-week trading range following an upgrade and an acquisition.

Symantec shares were raised to overweight from neutral by JPMorgan asthe firm believes its data security sales will hold up despite a weak economy. 

The second key piece of newsis that the data protection software giant is acquiring privateUK-based MessageLabs for $695 million in cash.  MessageLabs generatedroughly $145 million in fiscal sales with roughly 20% growth over 2007levels.  This acquisition is meant to strengthen its software asservice and messaging security platforms.

Shares were up almost 0.25% at $15.02 on last look and trading volumeis rather thin at 5,000 shares.  On normal days and in normal times,the reception to this might be greater than what is currently beingseen.

Jon C. Ogg
October 8, 2008