With global revenue dropping, Symantec posts big loss
- 29 January, 2009 06:55
- Comments 1
Symantec posted a big loss Wednesday, citing the tough economic climate, but the company's quarterly earnings still were better than analysts had expected.
Citing the tough economy and the beating that Symantec's stock has taken over the past year, the security and storage software vendor took a non-cash write-down for its third quarter, ended Jan. 2, leaving it with a loss of US$6.81 billion for the quarter. "Given that the markets were off as much as they were, we went in mid-November and did a goodwill impairment analysis," said Enrique Salem, the company's chief operating officer, who is set to replace current CEO John Thompson in April.
Excluding charges such as the goodwill write-down, the company blew past expectations, posting earnings of $350 million, or $0.42 per share. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $0.32 per share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.
Revenue was down compared to last year's third quarter in most segments of the world, except the U.S., Latin America and Canada. There, sales were spurred by deals with Continental Airlines, Yamaha Corporation of America and Canadian Tire, and revenue rose 7 percent. Worldwide, the company's storage and server management group saw revenue rise just 1 percent, and the consumer group's revenue rose just 2 percent. The company's security and compliance products saw revenue drop 5 percent.
Symantec cut costs in November by laying off staff throughout the company. It hasn't said how many positions it terminated, but the cuts amounted to 4.5 percent of salary costs. On Wednesday, Salem didn't rule out the possibility of future cuts. "We're going to work hard to continue to manage our expenses, and at this point I'm pleased with the performance of the company," he said, adding, "I can't forecast what's going to happen in the economy."
Salem also declined to forecast who might be Barack Obama's next pick for U.S. Secretary of Commerce, a job that is reportedly going to Salem's boss, John Thompson. News reports this week have said Thompson is currently being vetted for the post and is considered the new administration's top pick.
Thompson, a contributor to Obama's campaign, told the IDG News Service last November that he would consider such a position. "Clearly if I were to get a call from the president-elect, it would be not only stupid, but unpatriotic to not take the call and consider anything that he might want to chat with me about," he said at the time.
Salem said Thompson would make a great choice. "I think John is a terrific leader and if he could be a part of helping our country do well, I think he would serve well and would do a good job."
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Comments
B_A_LOS
Capitulation of Symantec is inevitable
What do you expect from this company ever since they embarked a few years ago to start acquiring or merging with any company, be they innovative or just trash. Symantec have only achieved splurging their profits and slowing their growth(distant by-gone era.) These acquisition sprees have proven that they were simply done to justify the titles and/or the selfish vested interests and egotistical glory of management, and not in the interest of the employees nor the investors.
Symantec then proceeds to squeeze the life out of each one of the acquired companies, with the mentality of wiping or cleaning them out, just like a virus! One such great innovative company and former leader was Veritas, whom were then the leaders and known as the "Storage Stars", until Symantec came along of course. Symantec managed to simply turn them into some sort of "Security Storage" also-ran. Examples are products such as Backup Exec, Netbackup, Veritas Cluster Server.
Somehow, Symantec don't realize(at their own peril), that there are many other more innovative companies covering the same product space and unfortunately they cannot acquire them all. These other companies and competitors happen to have product offerings that actually work! Also, they can provide very reasonable support offerings, turnarounds and a lot less aggravation than Symantec can. These competitors are therefore much better value, hence offer greater rewards for investors, than what a now "Security-Snitching Symantec" can possibly have to offer, as it is clear that they are gradually fading and showing signs of being a mediocre and nasty arrogant conglomerate.
In dealing with Symantec over the past few years, the main conclusion or best guess that I can make, is that the company is only good at "stitching-up" the most valuable resource that a Tech company can have, which is it's employees. Way too many employees have been shown the now famous Symantec revolving door. One employee mentioned to me that they(Symantec), are sleuthy or real good and quick at squashing anyone whom identifies issues with procedures\policies, or is a free thinker or maybe outspoken(disruptive). Simply put, Symantec treats it employees like s**t.
Thereby, we have a Software Tech company that does not encourage innovation and/or creativity from within, but instead encourages paranoia, snooping and snitching in order to "stitch-up" and squash talented people to oblivion. Symantecs' only answer is to to simply keep cutting costs(mainly human), keep acquiring and squashing innovation\creativity. Everything else is judged internally by Symantec as being at odds with company values, and anyone that dares challenge this notion is just way too disruptive, and must join the unemployment queues. Sadly via than none other but the Symantec revolving door.
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