Symantec are one of the industries big players and Enrique Salem, their chief executive is not hiding his desire to invest in new opporunities.

According to Reuters he is in the market for new takeovers. Symantec's last deal was to purchase Verisign for the secure transaction sign up capabilities. This cost a cool $1.3 billion last year.

There are many theories on where the company might head, with analysts saying that storage and cloud computing may be possibilities. They are certainly not short of money, they have $3 billion as spare change for acquisitions, which compares well to the $2 billion Salem had in 2010. Investors have a differing view, they feel a lot of this money should be kept in the bank for potential ‘lean' periods.

Salem has said that he expects to see a wave of consolidation in the technology industry over the next couple of years, as big software companies snap up smaller ones to enhance their capabilities.

“My expectation is that consolidation will continue. You'll see meaningful consolidation that will change tech meaningfully,” he said.

Symantec also own a 49 percent stake in Huawei Symantec. It also has the right to buy an extra 2 percent in the company for $28 million.

“Some of the products that the activists want us to get rid of are central to dealing with growth and data,” he said. “I am happy with the portfolio.”

KitGuru says: Watch this space for news of any takeovers in 2011.

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