Huawei, Symantec form joint venture

update Chinese networking vendor Huawei and American security firm Symantec have announced the forming of a joint-venture company that will develop security and storage appliances to market to telecommunications carriers.

The new company, to be named Huawei-Symantec Inc. and based in the Chinese city of Chengdu, will be 51 percent owned by Huawei and 49 per cent by Symantec.

Huawei will contribute its intellectual property licenses, R&D resources, manufacturing and engineering, while Symantec will contribute US$150 million in cash, its own intellectual property licenses and working capital.

Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei said that network security appliances will play a large role in the migration of carriers to all-IP (Internet Protocol) networks.

Solutions developed for this market, he said, will also be sold to enterprise customers.

Globally, IDC estimates the security and storage appliance market to be worth US$23 billion.

The company will initially focus on the Chinese market, which IDC claims to be worth close to US$1.1 billion and growing at 14 percent a year.

A company spokesperson told ZDNet Australia that over time the joint venture will expand into other geographies. Huawei's Australian telecommunication customers include Vodafone and Optus.