Are Symantec Norton problems ahead - company having a major management change

http://www.cio.com/article/727598/Symantec_Reorganization_Offers_a_Lesson_on_Knowing_When_to_Leave

Symantec's recently announced reorganization and strategic shift point to a tenuous few years, as employees will be asked to do more with less in the name of keeping shareholders--including the CEO--happy. This is usually a good sign that it's time to polish up your resume..............This should provide a short-term stock boost, but it will reduce Symantec's long-term ability to compete.

 

Isn't this news at least 6 months old now.

 

I am not sure. I do not follow the company and just saw this but it is time stamped January 2013 and states recently announced.

 

It is absolutely time to polish the resume. I have been in that situation. This is the sign of a CEO trying to get a stock boost so he can sell and get out.

 

Symantec has cut a lot of employees in the past two years. Their tech team isn't nearly as big as it used to be, and most of Norton's products are now developed (read: outsourced) to India and Ukraine. Their product-focused model is now beginning to make sense: They may kill PC Tools because this brand cuts into their bottom line (revenue) and hurts the intended premium positioning of Symantec and Norton.

Despite all these moves, if SYMC still faces problems, I think they need an overhaul. I dare say, employees better start looking for options, and users better take care, Symantec is not the company it used to be.

 

This is clearly one of the reasons for the 'changes' at PC Tools. I notice our PC Tools contact has changed his signature to a Symantec signature this week and their PR guy has moved on to their mobile security blog.

 

You mean Richard Clooke?

Moxxey, do you have any idea what they intend to do with PC Tools now? If the brand is dead, what's stopping them from just moving the users to Norton/Symantec products?

 

Could the move be a positive for Norton users? What does it exactly mean to focus on product, GE style, as Symantec plans to do? I guess it could mean either of two things: make product as cheap as possible or make a solid, peerless product? GE was known for solid quality.

 

I wonder what the main issue is with Symantec? Is it losing sales from their home use products or losing sales from their business oriented products? For some reason I thought their business oriented products were the bread and butter of the company.

 

I hope they dont discontinue a few of their free products on top of PCtools I really like using Norton Connectsafe(DNS) and NPE isnt half bad the last time I used it on a infected computer.

 

I read this yesterday.

My take is to improve the bottom line profit wise whatever it takes. This usually results in a diminished product with empahsis on marketing tricks and reducing labor costs by offshoring to the cheapest location and the like. That is the "GE model" referred to. Ex GE employees didn't nickname Jack Nuetron Welsh without reason. After he showed up at a plant, all that was left was the buildings

 

With Windows 8 having native AV security, you may see the AV bubble burst. This may be just the tip of the iceberg.

 

I think every company today is following that strategy...do more with less and keep stockholders happy. I think many would agree that one person today does the job 3 or 4 did 20 years ago....whether it's right or wrong, it's the prevailing business paradigm. I'm glad I'm near the end of my working career...it's not fun like it used to be.

 

Windows 8 native security is nowhere near capable of killing off 3rd party solutions, nowhere near.

As far as stockholders being happy, when that becomes the top priority for a company, that company has already started dying in my opinion.

 

Take a look at browser usage....and that's with MS running a really crap browser all those years.
http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustomd=0
And, don't look now but:
http://blog.systemexplorer.net/antivirus-usage-statistics-for-122012/
Another:
http://www.opswat.com/sites/default/files/worldwide-av-vendor-large.png

 

Their business products, for the most part, continue to be decent - you can say they are stable but stagnant in that segment.

In a few of the investor calls I recall Norton was losing ground to competitors as well as PC Tools. That was affecting revenue as they have been forced to slash prices to compete. As SYMC was quite large compared to some other organizations, they have had to make layoffs over the years.

Their new focus will probably up the marketing and reduce the management a little, making for a tighter development schedule. However, long term implications remain to be seen.

 

This gets more interesting the more I read into it. Check out these quotes:

This indicates, for one, that PC Tools products will be eventually assimilated into the Norton brand. Secondly, it indicates that there will be a change in marketing, and perhaps, development efforts (unified SEPS and Norton development?).

 

Hopefully, Symantec is cutting expenses in the right areas. If they focus too much on the short-term, they will have a lot of problems down the road.

IMHO, Symantec should have never been in the position they are in right now. It has the resources to make everything right, yet the company is struggling across the board.

 

I'm not following. I have no idea why you posted the first link, as for the rest it has nothing to do with Windows 8 security being better and a lot more to do with the fact that not only is MSE free, but it's already on the system, and Avast has a free solution as well. MSE is all but horrid, and considering SmartScreen throws up more FPs than anything else and is now system wide, well, I wouldn't be saying any eulogies for 3rd party solutions anytime soon. Why are some of those "big boys" at such a low percentage of use? Mostly it's because they're too expensive to keep subscribing to every 6 months or so.

Oh, by the way, neither of the two relevant stat sheets speak of what OS these solutions are running on, nor are they up to date, so there's that as well. Anyway, none of that has to do with Norton, so let's get back to that. I just wanted to point out that Windows 8 won't alone kill the AV market.

 

I'm not an expert in economics or anything but one of the things i hate about big corps is that they have to please their shareholders . . . Frigging sucks. Companies should stay privately owned.