In the last year, one third of American citizens and over 650 million people globally were the victims of cyber crime. Consequently, more and more consumers are concerned about digital safety, an estimated $10 billion market growing in the high single digits. In the United States alone, the estimated total addressable market is 80 million people.

“As we all know, consumer cyber crime has reached crisis levels. Lifelock is a leading provider of identity and fraud protection services, with over 4.4 million highly-satisfied members and growing. With the combination of Norton and Lifelock, we will be able to deliver comprehensive cyber defense for consumers,” said Greg Clark, Symantec’s CEO. “This acquisition marks the transformation of the consumer security industry from malware protection to the broader category of digital safety for consumers.”

Symantec’s acquisition of Lifelock brings together the number one leader in consumer security with a leading provider of identity protection and remediation services. The combination will create the world’s largest consumer security business with over $2.3 billion in annual revenue based on last fiscal year revenues for both companies.

“People’s identity and data are prime targets of cyber crime. The security industry must step up and defend through innovation and vigilance,” said Dan Schulman, Symantec’s Chairman of the Board. “With the acquisition of Lifelock, Symantec adds a new dimension to its protection capabilities to address the expanding needs of the consumer marketplace.”

“After a thorough review of a broad range of alternatives, our board of directors unanimously concluded that Symantec is the ideal strategic partner for Lifelock and offers our shareholders a significant premium for their investment, at closing,” said Hilary Schneider, CEO of Lifelock. “Together with Symantec we can deploy enhanced technology and analytics to provide our customers with unparalleled information and identity protection services. We are very pleased to have reached an outcome that serves the best interests of all Lifelock stakeholders.”

By offering each of the company’s respective customer bases a broader digital safety solution, Symantec expects to achieve additional revenue upside through higher ASPs and improved retention rates.

Symantec expects to finance the transaction with cash on the balance sheet and $750 million of new debt. Symantec’s board of directors has also increased the company’s share repurchase authorisation from approximately $800 million to $1.3 billion, with up to $500 million in repurchases targeted by the end of fiscal 2017.

Given the expected closing in the first calendar quarter of 2017, Symantec expects the transaction to have no impact to its quarter ending December 30, 2016. The transaction is also not expected to have a material impact to Symantec’s fiscal year 2017 financial results, and the company is reaffirming its prior fiscal year 2017 financial guidance at this time: non-GAAP revenue of $4,040 - $4,120 million; non-GAAP operating margin of 27-29%; and non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.12-$1.18. The company is also reaffirming its prior fiscal year 2018 non-GAAP earnings per share guidance of $1.70-$1.80. Symantec expects the transaction to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share in fiscal year 2019.

The transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval in the United States and Lifelock stockholder approval.