Big tech cos pull out of San Francisco conferences on coronavirus concerns

(Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc <VZ.N> has pulled out of the RSA cyber security conference due to coronavirus-related concerns, the organizer said https://www.rsaconference.com/novel-coronavirus-update on Friday.

RSA also said that AT&T Cybersecurity will not participate in the conference, taking the total number of companies that have pulled out to fourteen. These include six from China, seven from the United States and one from Canada.

Separately, Facebook Inc <FB.O> said that it will not be attending the Game Developers Conference, also in San Francisco, due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Last week, International Business Machines Corp <IBM.N> also withdrew from the conference on similar concerns.

The coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has killed more than 2,200 people so far on the Chinese mainland.

The RSA Conference is scheduled to take place in San Francisco between Feb. 24–28, while GDC will take place between March 16-20.

(Reporting by Neha Malara and Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Krishna Chandra Eluri)