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Technology Stocks : Symantec (SYMC) - What does it look like? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Harry J. who wrote (1792)	8/4/2000 3:46:50 PM
From: Elmer Flugum	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2069

PC Defender Symantec Shifts Over To Offense In Play For Corporations 4financial.4anything.com Anti-virus software makers are specialists in defense. But Symantec Corp. is bucking that trend and going on the offensive. The creator of such computer security successes as Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security, Symantec is champing at the bit for corporate sales. Why? The corporate computer security market should grow 30% a year, nearly triple the consumer market, analysts say. So Symantec’s treading into the territory of Network Associates Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. Most of Network Associates’ $684 million in annual sales comes from protecting companies, analysts say. Image: Company In The News “Clearly the opportunity for us is to expand our product base in the enterprise security space,” Symantec Chief Executive John Thompson said. Symantec’s revenue amounted to $705 million in fiscal 2000, up 33% from 1999. Symantec’s blend is 50% consumer and 50% corporate sales. Thompson wants a 55% corporate to 45% consumer mix by March. Trouble is, Wall Street seems tentative about the company of late. Symantec’s stock price more than doubled from mid-1999 to mid-2000. But a June swoon brought it down from above 71 to the mid-50s. Analysts cite industrywide weakness in consumer sales in April and May. The stock got a slight boost when first-quarter earnings were reported July 19, but has been choppy since. And Network Associates has refocused from suites to individual products for encryption, intrusion detection, anti-virus and help desks. It’s also regaining sales traction. “Symantec will not be able to win the easy deals that perhaps it was getting when Network Associates was going through its transition,” said analyst Kevin Wagner of Boston-based investment bank Adams, Harkness & Hill Inc. Spearheading Symantec’s business move is Thompson, who arrived a year ago after 28 years as an IBM Corp. manager. Thompson has pared down Symantec to fighting trim. He divested unrelated ACT and Visual Cafe product lines, forged new alliances and acquired new security software, Wagner says. “Don’t forget last year, when Network Associates stumbled and posted a $25 million quarter when everyone was expecting $225 million,” Wagner said. “Here comes John aboard, he strikes up an IBM partnership and starts pushing the corporate product at a time when Network Associates was on its back - and he made some headway.” Consumer sales are somewhat weak, but corporate growth has come back after a lackluster quarter, Wagner says. Thompson could hardly have come to a computer security company at a better time. Hackers hit major Internet sites in February. The market swooned and security stocks spiked. In May, the “Love Bug” virus swamped e-mail systems worldwide. Businesses are asking for stronger inoculations against computer bugs. And Symantec seems to have recognized new market demands. Take Norton Internet Security. The online gatekeeper arrived in December and quickly took 74% of the market. The software protects computers from hackers, privacy intrusions and viruses. “(It went) from being a thought . . . to being a market leader in 90 days,” Thompson says. Norton Internet Security 2000 ranked sixth among business titles in June sales, says PCData Inc. of Reston, Va. Symantec is expanding its ability to work with different corporate platforms, such as newly popular Linux and the old standby Unix. Until March, it concentrated on working with the Windows NT platform, though many businesses still use Unix, says John Puricelli, analyst at A. G. Edwards & Sons. In May, Symantec announced an anti-virus deal to protect users of Yahoo e-mail. It’s not much of a revenue producer, but it has promise, Puricelli says. “(It) shows the software can scale and scan millions of messages a day,” Puricelli said.