Boeing pulls out of commercial cybersecurity business

Boeing Co. has licensed some of its cybersecurity technology to Symantec Corp., a company probably best known for its Norton antivirus software.

Chicago-based Boeing is withdrawing from the commercial cybersecurity business after buying Narus in 2010. The aerospace giant will continue to develop cybersecurity technology for government and defense customers.

“When we acquired Narus there was an expectation of a number of commercial opportunities for cybersecurity business. Those didn’t develop as expected, so we looked for another way to leverage that (intellectual property),” Boeing spokesman Andrew H. Lee said.

Boeing agreed to let Symantec hire some Narus staff and licensed the use of Narus intellectual property by Symantec. Financial terms weren’t released. Symantec hired about 65 engineers and data scientists.

“We are thrilled to bring the Narus team on board at this critical time in our company’s future,” Symantec chief technology officer Amit Mital wrote in a blog post Monday. “We are building a new Symantec, and together I know we’ll bring to market solutions designed to solve tomorrow’s biggest challenges that only big data can address.”

Narus, which employed about 150 people when Boeing bought it, was based in Sunnyvale, California. It operated as a wholly owned subsidiary within in the aerospace company’s Boeing Defense, Space & Security unit until December 2014.

h/t Wall Street Journal