Symantec layoffs coming

Symantec will lay off an undetermined number of workers before the end of the year as part of a cost-cutting move in the economic downturn, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

The company, which gave guidance on Wednesday that was short of analyst expectations, plans a 4.5 percent cost savings in its workforce budget and will reduce the headcount enough to accomplish that, said spokesman Cris Paden.

Paden said he did not know how many employees would be laid off as a result, but said the layoffs will be global, will vary across geographies, and that no specific business units were being targeted.

"We are shooting for a specific (cost savings) figure. So whatever gets us to that figure" will be done, he said. The goal is to maintain soundness of Symantec's financials "given how unpredictable the economic environment is right now."

Symantec will start alerting employees within the next month, according to Paden.

The move is separate from an initiative started over a year ago but which is ongoing to outsource the IT operations to EDS, Paden said.

The workforce budget includes costs for salaries, bonuses, and benefits for the company's 17,500 employees worldwide.

[Penguinisto]

Not so sure it's due to an "economic downturn" as much as Symantec has been desperately needing to cut loose their deadwood and to liven up the joint in the first place.

/P

[gggg sssss]

certainly my decision to cancel 100 seats of that POS end point security ( loved the previous corporate version though for years) will contribut to that. Hate to send money to the Russians, but that looks like the best alternative.

[Lerianis]

Excuse me, but Norton Internet Security 2009 is just as good as Kaspersky's virus scanner. So, no, don't switch.

[Cobalt35]

NIS 2009 may be better but it will take several years of "better" before I consider Norton again.

[gggg sssss]

lerianis - you are excused. What has Norton Internet Security got to do with End Point Security? Just because they are both sold by Symantec? Are you telling me you would put NIS on a fleet of corporate machines? How? How do you manage licencing? How do you deal with teh Norton firewall? Searching desparately for clues here.

[wmacorlando]

I've heard more than one person say the same thing you just wrote before they properly installed, configured and received training for SEP. It's not just AV and may be too much for your 100 seat environment. You can still buy SAV CE and get support for it.

Are you wiling to call your Symantec account manager and explain your problem before making your decision?

[RacerX7]

I have canceled my 250+ seats of the endpoint security this month (or more precisely, I did not renew my subscription) after nine years. The reasons are varied, but most significantly was the product became incredibly processor and memory intensive and it has failed to catch several security problems (AKA viruses and spyware) that other "lesser" products caught with ease.

Symantec can blame the economy if they'd like, and I'm sure they are, for a large part correct. However I think they would be mistaken to attribute the loss of revenue solely on the economy.

Computer security and backups are as important as ever. If they are losing money, I would suggest they look at how they could improve their product lines versus cutting staff just to make the numbers balance.

[wmacorlando]

Your problems may be solved by a simple configuration change. SEP may be a little much for your 250 seat environment. You can go back to SAV 10 and get support for it.

Would you be willing to discuss your concerns with your account manager before you make your decision?

[RacerX7]

No, actually, I wouldn't. That ship has sailed. I started to write a short note listing some of the varied reasons, but it started getting way to long for a forum such as this.

However I do find it interesting that you state SEP may be too much for my environment. That's the bill of goods Symantec sold me two years ago over the less expensive alternative. If you're from Symantec, that alone should tell you a lot about the business model you have been employing, and why you may be seeing trouble now.

[DancingWithTheTrain]

As a Symantec Employee in the Services, I can tell you all our temps were replaced with outsourced people in the Philippines. We received news two weeks ago that on November 10th (day before Veteran's day so we wouldn't get holiday pay if let go) we will find out if we get to keep our job. The Philippine crew are nice people but are very inefficient with enterprise products. I give it a 50-50 if we stay are condensed or if we are all completely let go. Many of us have been with the company for over 9 years.

[baldbrownguy]

I was at Symantec from 2002 to 2006.

Respectfully, I think the VRTS acquisition brought a lot of deadweight. VRTS was unhealthy to begin with, although their product line was great. Still, a company doesn't get bought by a company a quarter its size without having something very wrong with it.

I believe that SYMC's lack of decisiveness in the M&A period generated a huge deadweight, and problems that are only now being addressed as aggressively as they should have been in the first place.

Sadly, at this stage of the game, the productive employees are under the same scrutiny as the unproductive ones.

[dahicke]

AVOID Symantec and Norton. Symantec has resorted to make virus-ware products that do not uninstall and are difficult to remove. I would recommend avoiding their products at all costs. They have become an Unethical company. I would not be surprised if they are not creating and distributing viruses, worms, Trojan horses etc. to bolster their own business. Their Norton Security Scan is one of these virus-ware products that is hard get off a computer. I have tried un-installing 4 times and it re-installs itself at logon.