By Greg Roumeliotis
(Reuters) - Software security company Symantec Corp (O:SYMC) has agreed to sell its data storage business Veritas to private equity firm Carlyle Group LP (O:CG), according to a person familiar with the matter.
A deal could be announced as soon as Tuesday, when Symantec is due to report its quarterly earnings, the person said, asking not to be named because the matter is private.
Carlyle declined to comment. Symantec could not immediately be reached for comment.
Bloomberg had reported first last month that Symantec was nearing a deal to sell Veritas to Carlyle for between $7 billion and $8 billion.
Symantec has been seeking buyers for Veritas for several months, but interest from potential buyers was limited because of a tax burden associated with splitting the company.
Symantec had been planning to separate its business focussed on corporate and consumer security software, which had $4.2 billion in revenue last year, from Veritas, which has about $2.5 billion in revenue. It announced the tax-free spinoff last October.
Investor pressure has been building on legacy technology companies such as Symantec to become more agile and capitalise on faster-growing businesses, whether it's through corporate breakups or divestitures.