Yahoo Inc and Symantec Corp unveiled a joint consumer Internet security service on Monday that will help the two companies compete against major rivals such as Google Inc and Microsoft Corp.
The two companies said they would offer Symantec's Norton Internet Security product directly to Yahoo customers in a deal that expands an ongoing partnership and seeks to take advantage of growing consumer demand for more Internet protection.
The deal also gives Symantec access to the hundreds of millions of customers who use Yahoo services and helps the software maker fend off Microsoft, which is making a big push into the potentially lucrative consumer security market.
For Yahoo, the offering helps assure customers that the Internet is a secure place to do everything from banking to travel planning to job searches as it battles against Google and Microsoft to be the dominant Internet services provider, the companies said.