A key adviser to institutional investors late Friday gave a thumbs up to Symantec’s pending merger with storage specialist Veritas Software.
The ISS approval offsets a recommendation Glass, Lewis & Co. issued late Thursday against the merger. Advisory service companies like ISS and Glass, Lewis provide guidance to institutional investors–such as mutual funds, index funds and pension funds–on how to vote their shares on issues that come up for a shareholder vote.
Symantec and Veritas will ask their respective investors to vote on the merger, valued at $13.5 billion, on June 24. Symantec is largely owned by institutional investors, which make up more than 90 percent of its shareholder base.
