diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 3082e26c5dd9..63c25ac4238c 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -311,20 +311,6 @@ include_directories("3rdparty/tvm/include")
 include_directories("3rdparty/dmlc-core/include")
 include_directories("3rdparty/dlpack/include")
 
-# commented out until PR goes through
-#if(EXISTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/3rdparty/dlpack)
-#  add_subdirectory(3rdparty/dlpack)
-#endif()
-
-# Prevent stripping out symbols (operator registrations, for example)
-if(NOT MSVC AND NOT APPLE)
-  set(BEGIN_WHOLE_ARCHIVE -Wl,--whole-archive)
-  set(END_WHOLE_ARCHIVE -Wl,--no-whole-archive)
-elseif(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID MATCHES "Clang")
-  # using regular Clang or AppleClang
-  set(BEGIN_WHOLE_ARCHIVE -Wl,-force_load)
-endif()
-
 if(UNIX)
   find_library(RTLIB rt)
   if(RTLIB)
@@ -664,6 +650,18 @@ if(UNIX)
     target_compile_options(mxnet PUBLIC "--coverage")
     target_link_libraries(mxnet PUBLIC gcov)
   endif()
+  if(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL "Distribution")
+    # TODO For handling mxnet's symbols the following can be replace by
+    # annotating symbol visibility in source code, specifying
+    # set(CMAKE_CXX_VISIBILITY_PRESET hidden) and
+    # set(CMAKE_VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN ON)
+    # Symbols from statically linked libraries can be discarded via -Wl,--exclude-libs,ALL
+    if(APPLE)
+      set_target_properties(mxnet PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS "-Wl,-exported_symbols_list,${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/libmxnet.sym")
+    else()
+      set_target_properties(mxnet PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS "-Wl,--version-script=${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/libmxnet.ver")
+    endif()
+  endif()
 elseif(MSVC)
   if(USE_CUDA)
     if(USE_SPLIT_ARCH_DLL)
@@ -834,8 +832,12 @@ endif()
 include(GNUInstallDirs)
 install(TARGETS mxnet
   RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}
+          COMPONENT   MXNET_Runtime
   LIBRARY DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}
+          COMPONENT            MXNET_Runtime
+          NAMELINK_COMPONENT   MXNET_Development
   ARCHIVE DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}
+          COMPONENT   MXNET_Development
 )
 install(DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/3rdparty/dlpack/include/ DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR})
 install(DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/3rdparty/dmlc-core/include/ DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR})
@@ -876,7 +878,10 @@ if(INSTALL_PYTHON_VERSIONS)
   endforeach()
 endif()
 
-add_subdirectory(tests)
+if(NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL "Distribution")
+  # Staticbuild applies linker version script to hide private symbols, breaking unit tests
+  add_subdirectory(tests)
+endif()
 
 # ---[ Linter target
 find_package(Python3)
diff --git a/cmake/libmxnet.sym b/cmake/libmxnet.sym
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0ddf63fca433
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmake/libmxnet.sym
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+MX*
+NN*
+_MX*
+_NN*
+mx*
+nn*
+_mx*
+_nn*
+Java_org_apache_mxnet*
+*NDArray*
+*Engine*Get*
+*Storage*Get*
+*on_enter_api*
+*on_exit_api*
+*MXAPISetLastError*
diff --git a/cmake/libmxnet.ver b/cmake/libmxnet.ver
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..560549c29e58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmake/libmxnet.ver
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+{
+    global:
+        NN*;
+        MX*;
+        _NN*;
+        _MX*;
+        nn*;
+        mx*;
+        _nn*;
+        _mx*;
+        Java_org_apache_mxnet*;
+        *NDArray*;
+        *Engine*Get*;
+        *Storage*Get*;
+        *on_enter_api*;
+        *on_exit_api*;
+        *MXAPISetLastError*;
+    local: *;
+};