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Internet security company Symantec joined other investors in the recent $20M $40 million fund raise by identity theft protection company Lifelock, VentureBeat has learned from a source. The two companies have also signed a partnership deal to offer a bundled online and offline security product.
The round, which regulatory filings revealed a couple of months ago but without mention of the backers, valued LifeLock at about $306 million, according to PE Data Center. Interestingly, former Google chief financial officer George Reyes is on the board of both Symantec and Lifelock.
Lifelock’s chief executive Todd Davis is still offering a $1 million “service guarantee” on the company’s home page that it will protect your identity. As you can see (image left), he’s still openly advertising his own social security number, effectively challenging identity thieves to take advantage of him.
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Of course, as we reported last year, someone actually did manage to steal his identity, and they convinced an online payday loan operation to give them $500. LifeLock customers sued Davis, but Davis fought back saying this was exactly the sort of scam that Lifelock protects against — namely, that there is no way that you can avoid getting taken to the cleaners for $500, and that Tempe, Arizona’s Lifelock’s guarantee to cover you for $1 million is a way to protect yourself.
Symantec, based in Cupertino, Calif., sells the popular Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus products. Customers buying either of these products will be offered a free 30-day LifeLock service, 10 percent off a membership subscription and two free movie tickets. Two free tickets? A blatant attempt to lure in security-conscious couples, if there ever was one — but this company has always been heavy on marketing. It had previously raised at least $31.5 million in financing from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, Goldman Sachs and Bessemer Venture Partners, so the total is now more than $71 million.
