Broadcom is reportedly in “advanced talks” to acquire beleaguered security company Symantec in a move that would continue the flow of equity into the security market.

According to various reports, including Reuters, Broadcom is looking to acquire the security provider in an attempt to diversify its operations. The news sent Symantec’s stock surging more than 10%, while Broadcom’s sagged more than 3%.

A Symantec spokesperson in an email to SDxCentral wrote: “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on market rumors or speculation.” Broadcom also said it had no comment on the reports.

The move could be a lifeline for Symantec, which has suffered through a rough 18 months. The firm last year launched an internal investigation into its financial reporting (and a related SEC probe), announced plans to slash jobs as part of a broader restructuring, lost a handful of top executives, and was reportedly an acquisition target.

The vendor’s rollercoaster has continued this year. It managed to post fiscal third-quarter results that came in above expectations; acquired software-defined perimeter technology startup Luminate Security; and announced collaboration plans with cloud giants Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and IBM Cloud.

However, in early May, its CEO Greg Clark abruptly resigned following release of its fiscal fourth-quarter results, which included weak enterprise sales and disappointing forecasts for the first quarter and full 2020 fiscal year. Clark told investors that the move was tied to family considerations.

The move would also seem to continue Broadcom’s diversification efforts. The company late last year closed on its $18.9 billion acquisition of CA Technologies, which specialized in mainframes targeted at enterprise customers. (It also reportedly slashed jobs after that deal closed, so beware Symantec.)

That deal followed up on Broadcom’s eventually failed attempt to acquire chip rival Qualcomm, which has a strong presence in the device market, and its $5.9 billion acquisition of Brocade in late 2017.

Charles King, president and principal analyst at Pund-IT, noted in an email to SDxCentral that he agreed that the move could be a push by Broadcom to “diversify itself by acquiring solid businesses that are leaders in their markets.”

“That was the strategy behind the company's acquisition of CA last year, a deal that seems to be working out pretty much as Broadcom had envisioned,” King wrote. "If it can follow a similar path with Symantec, the result should include enhanced financial stability – a critical point for a company focused on highly cyclical semiconductor markets.”

King also noted that if the Symantec deal does go through, “Broadcom is likely to significantly restructure Symantec.”

“That should lead to a stronger and more resilient organization but at the cost of what could be significant additional layoffs following an 8% headcount reduction Symantec announced last year,” King wrote.

The deal also signals the continued fiscal hype around the security market.

Endpoint security provider CrowdStrike last month raised $612 million in its initial public offering, which boosted its valuation to between $6.6 billion and $6.8 billion. The IPO was one of the highest ever for a U.S. cybersecurity firm, and made it the seventh venture-backed cybersecurity firm to be valued at more than $1 billion in its public debut.

The CrowdStrike move followed one by Israel’s Tufin Software Technologies in April, and a huge 2018, which saw Avast Software raise $811 million, Tenable raise $251 million, Zscaler raise $192 million, and Carbon Black raise $152 million.