December 18, 2008

Symantec Awarded $12 Million Judgment in Counterfeit Software Case

Symantec Corp. today announced it was awarded $12 million in damages against a distributor selling counterfeit Symantec software throughout North America. The ruling constitutes one of the largest single judgments awarded to Symantec in a software piracy case. The verdict was handed down by the United State District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles in favor of Symantec against Carmelo Cerrelli of Interplus Online, a Canadian-based organization selling software in the United States and Canada.

November 17, 2008

Symantec CEO John W. Thompson to Retire

Symantec today announced that John W. Thompson, chairman and chief executive officer, will retire as CEO at the end of the fiscal year. The board of directors has appointed Enrique T. Salem, Symantec’s chief operating officer, as president and chief executive officer effective April 4, 2009. Following the transition, Thompson, 59, will remain chairman of the board and Salem, 43, will join the board of directors.

Symantec Completes Acquisition of MessageLabs

Symantec Corp. today announced it has completed its acquisition of MessageLabs, on Nov. 14, 2008. MessageLabs is the leading provider of online messaging services, securing more than three billion email connections each day. The acquisition agreement between Symantec and MessageLabs was announced on Oct. 8, 2008.

October 29, 2008

Symantec Reports Strong Second Quarter Earnings Growth

Symantec Corp today reported the results of its second quarter of fiscal year 2009, ended Oct. 3, 2008. GAAP revenue for the quarter was $1.518 billion and non-GAAP revenue was $1.523 billion, up 6 percent over the comparable period a year ago. Foreign currency movements positively impacted non-GAAP revenue by approximately 3.5 percentage points year-over-year, and negatively impacted revenue by 2 percentage points sequentially.

October 16, 2008

Symantec Announces Multi-level Software-as-a-Service Partner Program

Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the formalization of a comprehensive partner program developed to help partners of all sizes generate recurring revenue streams from sales of Symantec’s subscription-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings. The Symantec Protection Network Partner Program extends Symantec’s Partner Program with a specialization developed for partners focused on selling Software-as-a-Service. The Symantec Protection Network Partner Program defines two formal program levels with participation criteria and benefits to partners who sell Symantec SaaS offerings. The Select partner level allows any Symantec partner to resell Symantec Protection Network online services and benefit from automated service account provisioning and billing. Select partners act as authorized sales agents and make use of Symantec’s automated online portal.

Symantec Reduces Storage Costs by Optimizing Thin Provisioned Storage

Symantec Corp. today announced enhancements to Veritas Storage Foundation that maximize the value of thin-provisioned storage environments by optimizing migrations and enabling storage reclamation. Storage Foundation leverages the industry’s only cross-platform thin-provisioning optimized file system and provides the only online storage migration solution that is thin-aware to help customers capitalize on their existing storage investment and eliminate costs from purchasing new storage. In addition, Symantec is announcing the Veritas Thin Reclamation API, a new API enabling automated space reclamation for thin provisioning storage arrays. Thin provisioning is a storage array-based technology to efficiently provision storage on demand to applications and maximize storage utilization. However, realizing the full benefit of thin provisioned storage is challenging as many file systems do not use storage capacity efficiently and existing applications cannot be intelligently migrated from traditional storage arrays into thin provisioned arrays. Without intelligent file system and storage integration, there is no way to return excess storage capacity to the storage pool over time, resulting in inefficient use of storage assets. Until today, these limitations have slowed the deployment of thin provisioned storage in the enterprise.

October 08, 2008

Symantec to Extend Online Services with Acquisition of MessageLabs

Symantec Corp. today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire MessageLabs, a leading provider of online messaging and Web security services. Under the terms of the agreement, Symantec will acquire MessageLabs for a purchase price of approximately $695 million in cash, subject to foreign currency adjustments, payable in approximately £310 million Pounds Sterling and $154 million US Dollars. MessageLabs generated approximately $145 million in revenue during fiscal year 2008, ending July 31, 2008 and grew by more than 20 percent over the prior fiscal year. The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close by the end of the 2008 calendar year.

August 18, 2008

Symantec to Acquire PC Tools

Symantec Corp. today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire PC Tools, a global provider of innovative software products designed to protect the privacy and security of Windows® computer users. The financial terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the calendar year and is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. PC Tools will maintain separate operations within Symantec’s consumer business unit, with Simon Clausen, PC Tools, Chief Executive Officer, leading the team and reporting to Janice Chaffin, Symantec Group President of Consumer Products. PC Tools will continue to offer their products under the PC Tools brand and serve its customers through its existing partners and channels. PC Tools is a privately held company headquartered in Australia, with offices in USA, UK, Ireland and the Ukraine. Their customers are located across the globe and their products are available in more than 196 countries.

July 30, 2008

Symantec Reports Strong First Quarter Revenue and Earnings

Symantec Corp. today reported the results of its first quarter of fiscal year 2009, ended July 4, 2008. GAAP revenue for the quarter was $1.650 billion and non-GAAP revenue was $1.655 billion, up 16 percent over the comparable period a year ago. GAAP net income for the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 was $187 million, compared to $95 million for the same quarter last year. GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.22, compared to earnings per share of $0.10 for the same quarter last year.

April 30, 2008

Symantec Closes Fiscal Year 2008 with Record Revenue and Earnings

Symantec Corp. today reported results of its fiscal fourth quarter and the fiscal year 2008, ended March 28, 2008. GAAP revenue for the March 2008 quarter was $1.540 billion and non-GAAP revenue was $1.548 billion, up 13 percent over the comparable period a year ago. For the fiscal year, GAAP revenue was $5.874 billion and non-GAAP revenue was $5.937 billion. On a non-GAAP basis, 2008 fiscal year revenue grew 13 percent compared to the 2007 fiscal year’s non-GAAP revenue of $5.253 billion. GAAP operating margins for the March 2008 quarter were 13.9 percent and fiscal year 2008 GAAP operating margins were 10.3 percent. Non-GAAP operating margins for the March 2008 quarter were 27.8 percent, up 540 basis points year-over-year. Fiscal year 2008 non-GAAP operating margins were 26.6 percent, up approximately 100 basis points versus fiscal year 2007.

February 04, 2008

Security software industry takes first steps towards forming anti-malware testing standards organization

More than 40 security software technologists and anti-malware testers from around the world recently met in Bilbao, Spain to formalize the charter of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization, or AMTSO. The formation of AMTSO has been driven by industry-wide concern about the increasing mismatch between what anti-malware technologies actually do, and the testing methodologies used to evaluate them. As anti-malware solutions become more complex, many existing tests are unable to evaluate product effectiveness properly, resulting in product reviews that are sometimes incomplete, inaccurate and misleading.

AMTSO is focused on addressing the global need for improvement in the objectivity, quality and relevance of testing methodologies. The organization also aims to promulgate universally adopted standards and guidelines for anti-malware testing. The vision for AMTSO was formed in May 2007 during the International Antivirus Testing Workshop in Reykjavik, Iceland, and developed further during the Antivirus Asia Researchers Conference in Seoul, South Korea last December. Pursuant to its preliminary charter, AMTSO will:

· Provide a forum for discussions related to the testing of anti-malware and related products;

· Develop and publicize objective standards and best practices for testing of anti-malware and related products;

· Promote education and awareness of issues related to the testing of anti-malware and related products;

· Provide tools and resources to aid standards-based testing methodologies; and,

· Provide analysis and review of current and future testing of anti-malware and related products.

February 05, 2008

Huawei and Symantec Commence Joint Venture

Symantec Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei) today announced that they have commenced their joint venture, which was announced in May 2007. The new company will develop and distribute world-leading security and storage appliances to global telecommunications carriers and enterprises. The transaction has satisfied all closing conditions, received all required government and regulatory approvals and officially closed on Feb. 5, 2008.

The joint venture company is headquartered in Chengdu, China, with Huawei owning 51 percent and Symantec owning 49 percent. John W. Thompson, chairman and chief executive officer of Symantec, has been named chairman of the board and Ren ZhengFei, chief executive officer of Huawei, has been named chief executive officer. Huawei is licensing certain technology and Symantec is licensing certain storage and security software to the joint venture company. Symantec is also contributing US$150 million to the joint venture.

December 30, 2008

Symantec Releases Public Beta of Norton 360 Version 3.0

Symantec Corp. today announced the availability of the public beta of Norton 360 version 3.0, the industry’s leading all-in-one security suite. The public beta includes Norton Safe Web, a new Web site rating service, and enhancements to tuneup and backup. The latest version of Norton 360 will also include the security and performance improvements that were launched in Norton Internet Security 2009.Since its launch in February 2007, Norton 360 has set the bar for providing comprehensive, multi-layered security in a truly set-it-and-forget-it package. The public beta features improvements in key performance innovations including a one-minute installation and the industry’s fastest and most frequent protection updates.

October 07, 2008

Symantec Introduces IRM Strategy for Securing and Managing Unstructured Information

Symantec Corp (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced its Information Risk Management (IRM) strategy and products that help organizations to secure and manage unstructured information such as email, instant messages (IM) and files. A new survey of IT leaders shows that unstructured information is not only a major driver of rising IT storage costs, but also a root cause of security and business challenges that stem from failure to manage information risk. Symantec Information Risk Management enables organizations to protect their information everywhere, reduce storage costs and automate high cost work flows.

Symantec Enterprise Vault 8.0 Can Cut Costs of Unstructured Information by More Than 60 Percent

As part of its Information Risk Management (IRM) strategy, Symantec Corp. today announced Symantec Enterprise Vault 8.0, the newest version of Symantec’s industry leading email and content archiving platform. Enterprise Vault 8.0 helps organizations reduce the costs of storing unstructured information such as email, instant messages (IM) and files by more than 60 percent through a combination of advancements to its data de-duplication and electronic discovery features and through associated energy cost savings. Enterprise Vault archives email, IM and collaborative content such as SharePoint files through storage optimization, classification, and retention technologies making it easy to find the stored content. It simplifies archiving for organizations of all sizes by reducing their storage information costs and automating high-cost workflows around e-discovery.

September 16, 2008

Symantec Protection Network Continues Momentum with Beta Launch of Online Remote Access

Symantec Corp. today announced the expansion of Symantec Protection Network, with the immediate availability of Symantec Online Remote Access beta release, helping businesses securely access their files and applications on their computer regardless of physical location. Symantec Online Remote Access, powered by pcAnywhere, is the third service offering since the Symantec Protection Network launch in February and builds on the success of Online Backup and Online Storage for Backup Exec. Symantec Online Remote Access is an online service that connects business professionals with their computers quickly and securely from any location. Mobile workers, telecommuters, field sales teams, satellite offices and IT organizations can securely access files, programs and other network resources remotely. Online Remote Access can be set up and ready for use within minutes of signing up, thereby providing a simple and easy-to-implement alternative to complicated and expensive VPN solutions. This powerful on-demand solution increases reach and productivity without requiring any upfront software purchase or network configuration. Subscribers can log in from any PC, with no pre-installed software required on the controlling computer, making users’ desktop applications accessible on-demand.

September 15, 2008

Symantec Delivers Innovative Data and System Protection for Virtual Machines and Windows Server 2008 Environments

Symantec Corp today announced the latest release of its Backup Exec product family to provide comprehensive data and system recovery of virtual and physical systems and support for the Windows Server 2008 portfolio. Symantec also adds new Backup Exec systems management and enhanced storage flexibility for heterogeneous environments, allowing organizations to easily protect their data and systems as they grow. The new release of Backup Exec 12.5 allows organizations to easily protect their data and systems in a physical and virtual environment through one, simplified solution. Backup Exec leverages award-winning technology for virtual environments, first introduced in Symantec’s Veritas NetBackup, to provide comprehensive data protection for VMware Infrastructure, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and conventional physical systems from a single console, thereby reducing cost and improving management of multiple virtual and physical systems. Backup Exec also reduces complexity by enabling users to backup an unlimited number of guest machines within a VMware ESX or Microsoft Hyper-V host environment to disk or tape from a single agent. In addition, Backup Exec adds Symantec’s patent-pending Granular Recovery Technology to provide individual file-level and image-level recovery from a single pass backup. Unlike other backup solutions that require multiple backups to allow for granular recovery of files and folders, as well as entire virtual machines, Backup Exec allows users to recover data on a granular or image-level via one backup to reduce the recovery time and the footprint of the backup on storage resources.

September 09, 2008

Symantec Launches Fastest Security Products in the World

Symantec Corp. today announced the availability of Norton Internet Security 2009 and Norton AntiVirus 2009, setting a new industry standard for speed and performance. The Norton 2009 products were designed with a “zero-impact” performance goal, supported by more than 300 improvements that span nearly every aspect of the product, from the scanning engines to the user interface.

July 15, 2008

Symantec Releases Public Betas of Norton Internet Security 2009, Norton AntiVirus 2009

Symantec Corp makers of Norton security software, today announced the availability of the public betas of Norton Internet Security 2009 and Norton AntiVirus 2009, designed to set a new industry standard for speed and performance. The Norton 2009 products have been designed with a “zero-impact” performance goal, supported by more than 300 improvements that span nearly every aspect of the product, from the scanning engines to the user interface. The beta versions are on track to deliver on several key metrics including a one-minute installation, the industry’s fastest protection updates and less than half the memory usage of the next leading competitor.

July 11, 2008

Symantec Facilitates IT GRC Initiatives Through IT Compliance Process Automation

Symantec Corp. today announced a significant update to its compliance process automation solution, Control Compliance Suite 9.0, in support of IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance (IT GRC) initiatives within global organizations. Symantec Control Compliance Suite provides customers with the ability to automate key IT compliance processes in order to reduce the risk to their information assets and reduce the costs of managing compliance. Increasingly, IT management is being called on to align with business objectives amidst shrinking budgets. Business executives are asking IT to achieve compliance for internal and external mandates while managing the delicate risk versus return balance. Compliance process automation is the key to meeting these requirements in a cost-effective and sustainable manner.

June 10, 2008

Symantec Offers Complete, Integrated Virtualization Solution to Enable the Dynamic Data Center

Symantec Corp. today announced Veritas Virtual Infrastructure, the first solution to offer advanced storage capabilities for virtual server environments that effectively manage storage in large scale, x86 production environments. Expected to be available in the fall of 2008, Veritas Virtual Infrastructure combines new, advanced storage management capabilities from Veritas Storage Foundation with the flexible, high-performance Citrix XenServer virtualization technology from Citrix Systems. Veritas Virtual Infrastructure will allow users to fully benefit from server virtualization while both preserving current best practices in storage management from the physical environment and leveraging new opportunities provided by virtualized environments. Veritas Virtual Infrastructure uses a new distributed volume manager specifically designed to deliver advanced storage management capabilities for virtual servers. Unlike current approaches that prevent virtual servers from directly managing storage, Veritas Virtual Infrastructure uses a client/server architecture that establishes a unique, individual relationship between each virtual server and its underlying storage, just as if it were a physical server. Furthermore, because it leverages Storage Foundation, users can realize all of these benefits from their existing, heterogeneous SAN storage.

March 13, 2008

Symantec Releases New Altiris Workflow Solution

Symantec today announced the release of Altiris Workflow Solution to help businesses reduce costs through IT process orchestration and automation. Workflow Solution helps customers implement IT processes, automate routine tasks, reduce the cost of management, improve service levels and end user satisfaction, and facilitate regulatory compliance.

IT organizations are challenged to break down technology, process and organizational silos to squeeze the most out of investments and resources. Workflow Solution is a heterogeneous IT process automation platform that crosses technological boundaries by integrating various Web services, databases, and service and configuration management tools to decrease costly and tedious IT tasks. Workflow Solution gives even the most non-technical IT worker the ability to create and deploy processes through a graphical drag-and-drop workflow designer that coordinates IT tasks, processes, best practices and automation tools.

March 10, 2008

Symantec Announces New Norton AntiVirus Dual Protection for Mac

Symantec Corp. makers of Norton security software, today announced the new Norton AntiVirus™ Dual Protection for Mac®, featuring vulnerability protection technology and antivirus for Mac users running Boot Camp or Windows virtualization software -- programs that allow users to run both Mac OS X Leopard and Windows operating systems. This solution provides comprehensive protection from both Mac and Windows-based vulnerabilities and viruses. With this dual protection functionality, Mac users benefit by receiving both the number one selling Mac antivirus solution – Norton AntiVirus 11 for Mac – and the award-winning antivirus and vulnerability protection of Norton AntiVirus 2008 for Windows. Mac users who run dual operating systems can now have comprehensive security protection with automatic updates from Symantec’s leading global security network. Norton AntiVirus Dual Protection for Mac automatically detects and removes viruses, scans and cleans downloaded files and e-mail attachments, and incorporates discrete yet effective security alerts. In addition, Norton AntiVirus Dual Protection for Mac is designed to automatically update itself in the background, allowing users to conduct their online activities without interruption. With Norton AntiVirus Dual Protection for Mac, users get comprehensive protection for two operating systems in one convenient and cost-effective package.

February 25, 2008

Symantec’s Newest Norton Ghost Packs Powerful Detection and Threat Protection Punch

Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), makers of Norton security software, today announced the release of Norton Ghost 14.0, its most advanced PC backup and recovery solution. Norton Ghost 14.0 backs up and restores a user’s entire PC computer system, including all of its data – applications, settings, folders and files – and offers exclusive remote backup management, industry-leading encryption and advanced compression features to ensure everything on the PC system is protected. Using Norton Ghost 14.0, users can quickly recover lost or damaged files and restore from system failures, even if their computer’s operating system does not start. Norton Ghost 14.0 leverages Symantec’s ThreatCon global security alerting system to identify threats, trigger automatic incremental backups and protect the user’s system even before an attack can occur. It also offers powerful protection and enhanced performance with new features, such as offsite backup to an FTP site or Network-Attached Storage (NAS) devices, in addition to long-standing features like remote management and LightsOut Restore capability. With Norton Ghost 14.0, users can backup an entire system or only specific files and folders. Incremental backups and enhanced compression help reduce the amount of required storage, while the product’s encryption technology helps keep all of the stored data safe and protected. Norton Ghost 14.0 also integrates with Google Desktop™, providing users with access to fully-searchable backup indexes.

February 19, 2008

Symantec Launches Two Software as a Service Offerings Symantec Corp. today announced it is delivering on its vision of easy-to-use, software as a service offerings for small and mid-sized businesses with the general availability of two Symantec Protection Network services. Symantec Online Backup provides customers with secure, reliable, online backup and recovery capabilities based on Symantec’s proven data protection technology, at a cost-effective price point. Symantec Online Storage for Backup Exec is integrated with Backup Exec 12, the industry standard in Windows data protection, creating the market’s first hybrid software as a service solution. Backup Exec customers can now immediately protect their critical data both onsite and offsite, for a total disaster recovery solution. Symantec Protection Network is designed to provide a suite of IT infrastructure technologies via one platform with a common user experience, allowing customers to simplify IT administration and focus on running their businesses. Customers will have the simplicity of a single portal and registration, consolidated billing and one common customer support model. In addition, customers will benefit from Symantec’s strong history in providing technology solutions and online services. The Symantec Protection Network platform has also been fully audited by an independent third party to meet the industry leading standard of SAS70 Type II.