A cloud computing buy

Article Excerpt

SYMANTEC CORP. $18.59 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 789.3 million; Market cap: $14.5 billion; No dividends paid) sells Internet security technology, including anti-virus and email filtering software. It also sells software and services for backing up and archiving data. Demand for data-security products is rising, particularly as more businesses switch to cloud computing. That’s where data and software are kept on remote servers. Users access these servers over the Internet. To meet this demand, Symantec plans to spend as much as $1.25 billion to buy other software firms this year, especially those that add to its cloud computing expertise. For example, Symantec recently agreed to pay $390 million for Clearwell Systems Inc., a maker of legal software that helps businesses back up and secure sensitive electronic files, including emails. Symantec is still a buy. buy…