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Symantec Revises First Quarter Outlook
Enterprise Strength Cannot Offset Weakness in Consumer Spending
CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 21, 2001--Symantec Corp.
(Nasdaq:SYMC - news) today announced that it is revising guidance for the first fiscal
quarter, ending June 29, 2001, due to weak spending in the consumer and small business
segments worldwide and negative foreign currency effects.
The company anticipates sales for its fiscal first quarter between $225 million to $235 million
compared to prior guidance of $255 million to $263 million and compared to $225.4 million
in the year ago period. The lowered sales forecast is expected to result in cash earnings per
share between $0.39 and $0.47 as compared to the previous forecast of $0.62 to $0.67
and compared to $0.60 a year ago excluding acquisition related and one-time charges.
``While consumer spending has slowed worldwide this quarter, our products continue to
maintain leading market share and are still profitable,'' said John W. Thompson, chairman,
president and CEO of Symantec. ``Although security spending is not recession-proof, we
remain confident in the long-term health of the Internet security industry and continue to see
strong order levels for our enterprise security solutions.''
Symantec expects revenue for the September quarter to be flat in comparison with the June
quarter. The company expects revenue for fiscal year 2002 to grow in the mid- to high-teens
from $944.6 million in fiscal year 2001. Symantec will release actual results for the fiscal first
quarter after the market closes on July 18.
Conference Call/Webcast
Symantec will hold a conference call today at 2 p.m. PDT to discuss the revised guidance.
The call will be available live via the Symantec Web site at www.symantec.com/invest. In
addition, domestic callers can dial 888/855-5428 and international callers can dial
719/457-2665. The Web cast will be available until Friday, July 13.
About Symantec
Symantec, a world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security solutions to
individuals and enterprises. The company is a leading provider of virus protection, vulnerability assessment, intrusion prevention,
Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises around the world.
Symantec's Norton brand of consumer security products leads the market in worldwide retail sales and industry awards.
Headquartered in Cupertino, Symantec has worldwide operations in 37 countries. For more information, please visit our Web
site at www.symantec.com.
NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corp. and its products, please view the Symantec
Press Center at symantec.com on Symantec's Web site. All prices noted are in US dollars and are
valid only in the United States.
Symantec, the Symantec logo, AXENT, AXENT Technologies, and the AXENT logo are trademarks or registered
trademarks, in the United States and certain other countries, of Symantec Corp. or its subsidiaries. Additional company and
product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT: This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements
to differ materially from results expressed or implied by this press release. Such risk factors include, among others: the risks that
current global adverse economic conditions and reduced spending will continue or worsen; currency exchange fluctuations will
adversely affect our results; the continuing integration of the Symantec and AXENT will not be successful; the difficulty of
developing and marketing products that compete effectively with others and other economic, business, competitive and/or
regulatory factors affecting Symantec's business generally. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the
forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors is contained in
the Risk Factors sections of the Company's previously filed Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2000 and Form 10-Q
for the quarter ended Dec. 29, 2000. |
