(Reuters) -NortonLifeLock Inc is in talks to buy European cybersecurity firm Avast Plc, the Wall Street Journal reported https://www.wsj.com/articles/nortonlifelock-in-talks-to-buy-avast-11626287085?page=1 on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The deal would help Tempe, Arizona-based NortonLifeLock, which primarily deals with consumer cyber safety, expand its focus to consumer software.
UK-based Avast makes free and premium security software for desktop and mobile devices under the Avast and AVG brands.
It has a market cap of 5.20 billion pounds ($7.21 billion), according to Refinitiv data. A deal could be finalized this month, assuming talks do not fall apart, the Journal said, citing sources.
The companies were not immediately available for a comment.
NortonLifeLock was previously known as Symantec Corp, before it sold its enterprise-security business to Broadcom in 2019. It currently sells Norton antivirus software and LifeLock identity-theft-protection products for home and work use.
Shares of NortonLifeLock fell as much as 4% on the news. They were last down about 1% at $26.93.
($1 = 0.7217 pounds)
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
