Thoma Bravo: Symantec Acquisition?

Private equity firm Thoma Bravo may acquire Symantec, according to Reuters. It's unclear if Symantec has received a formal takeover offer, but shares in the cybersecurity company are up 13 percent today amid the buyout speculation. The company's current market capitalization is $14.52 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.

The M&A report comes a few days after Symantec disclosed better-than-expected quarterly revenues -- though the company's overall business is contracting amid intense competition from cybersecurity startups like AlienVault (recently acquired by AT&T), Carbon Black, Cylance and Crowd Strike, among others.

Symantec itself has been making acquisitions -- including two deals that were disclosed yesterday.

Private Equity and Security Software

Thoma Bravo has been extremely active acquiring cybersecurity firms and MSP-friendly technology companies.

Private equity firms Bain Capital and Silver Lake are also investors in Symantec, Reuters notes. They could choose to participate in the deal as equity investors, as opposed to cashing out, according to the report.